The US will be back ahead of the UK very soon, with year three, for
one vital reason: the US breaks up new shows with reruns; the UK runs
straight through and stops. The rerun schedule generally allows us to
coast along at a reasonable schedule for delivering episodes. If the UK
started at the same time as the US in year 3, we'd hit snags as we
hurried to deliver shows. (We shoot in 7 working days, or 2 days longer
than a conventional week...so if you're showing a new ep every true 7
days, once a week, you're going to get ahead of production very quickly.)

So year 3 starts in the US in November; it will likely start in the
UK in January/February.

jms