Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman on The Red Nose Day show for 2019 as ratings tumble (Tom Dymond/BBC /Comic Relief)
Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day show has suffered a drop in viewer ratings after 5.6 million people tuned in to watch the star-studded telethon on BBC One.
The biennial fundraiser lost 600,000 viewers from its 2017 edition, when an average of 6.2 million switched on.
On average, only 800,000 more viewers tuned in to Comic Relief than to Coronation Street.
Sir Lenny Henry, Zoe Ball and David Tennant during The Red Nose Day show (Tom Dymond/BBC/Comic Relief/PA)
The soap broadcast on ITV at the same time as Friday night’s fundraiser with an average of 4.8 million tuning in, although this was across a smaller time slot.
A total of £63,548,668 was donated to the cause by the end of Friday’s event – meaning more than £1.3 billion has been raised by Comic Relief since it began in 1985.
Red Nose Day show loses 600,000 viewers as ratings tumble
