‘Downton Abbey’ Season 4 SPOILERS: PBS Announces Season 4 Premiere Date, Lady Mary’s New Man

PBS announced Tuesday that "Downton Abbey" will premiere its fourth season on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. The show will run for eight weeks and the season finale will air on Feb. 23.

New cast members Tom Cullen, Dame Harriet Walters, Gary Carr and Nigel Harman will join the show as characters who become involved in the goings-on of the Crawley family and its numerous servants. Shirley MacClaine, who portrayed Cora's mother, will also return in the show's annual Christmas special.

TVLine previously reported that Cullen would play the love interest of the widowed Lady Mary, played by Michelle Dockery. The character's name is Lord GIllingham, a longtime family friend of the Crawleys who has known Lady Mary since their youth.

The 27-year-old Cullen's previous acting credits include roles in the independent film Weekend and Last Days on Mars.

Dame Harriet Walters will play an old friend of Maggie Smith's character Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham. Harman will portray a valet named Green who visits the Crawleys.

"Downton Abbey" premiered on PBS in Sept. 2010 and follows the intrigue of the wealthy Crawley family in the Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey beginning in April 1912. True historical events weave into the plot of the show and affect the characters' lives.