Despite having a champion in Stella Richman, the show suffered from internal politics at the station, most notably from the sales department who could not see the attraction of a period drama, and the programme's videotapes spent nearly a year in storage awaiting a transmission date. Eventually the network had a space in its schedule at the unfashionable time of Sunday nights at 10:15 and called upon LWT to fill it. They chose "Upstairs, Downstairs," and with no promotion of the show, there was little expectation of success. However, audiences steadily grew and the series became a hit. In the United States, "Upstairs, Downstairs" was aired as part of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre".