TV ratings down for award shows

Bafta winners such as Anthony Hopkins failed to lure audiences

This year's Baftas and Grammys failed to lure as many TV viewers as last year, overnight figures have suggested.

The Grammys was the most watched US TV show on Sunday night with an audience of 17.5m but that was 2.5m less than last year, said Nielsen Media Research.

Meanwhile only 3.5m tuned in to see BBC One's first instalment of the British Academy Film Awards at 2100 GMT, according to overnight figures.

The later Bafta show broadcast at 2220 GMT attracted 2.9m viewers.

Lowest rating

Last year the main earlier show attracted 3.9 million viewers with 3.5 million people tuning in for the finale later on in the show.

The Grammys ratings was only 500,000 more than the lowest recorded viewing figure for the 2006 show, which was beaten by an overlapping episode of American Idol.

That year's audience of 17 million viewers, compared with 28 million for the talent show, provided the awards ceremony with the lowest rating in 11 years.

It is not just the Grammys that has been affected with low viewing figures.

US TV as a whole has suffered this season, partly to do with the broadcasting of reruns, game shows and reality shows bought on by the Hollywood writers' strike.