Former Blind Date presenter Cilla Black's much vaunted return to TV went largely unnoticed last night with just 220,000 viewers tuning in to her live Christmas special.
For a star once accustomed to 18 million viewers on a Saturday night, the unofficial overnight ratings for the Living TV show, will be a major blow.
Black's Christmas special was heavily trailed on multichannel TV and was heavily promoted in the last week with newspaper adverts, interviews and photoshoots.
In the event, viewers who could tune in to multichannel TV preferred a Bruce Willis movie and sci-fi show The 4400 to her entertainment special.
Cilla Live was a two hour and 10 minute special, featuring Black's trademark mix of Surprise Surprise-style family reunions and Blind Date-style matchmaking, plus makeovers, guest appearances and live music.
The Living TV show was Black's first major presenting role since she sensationally quit Blind Date live on air in January last year, although she did make guest appearances on BBC1's Johnny & Denise - Passport to Paradise in the summer.
But Cilla Live attracted just 220,000 viewers between 9pm and 11.15pm, according to unofficial overnights.
Black's return to TV lost out in the ratings to the final episode of Sky One's alien abduction drama, The 4400, which was watched by 800,000 viewers between 9pm and 10pm.
Her Living TV show also proved less popular than a repeat of Bruce Willis action movie Die Hard 2, which attracted 700,000 viewers to ITV2 between 9pm and 10.55pm.
Black had been looking forward nervously to the live show, admitting in an interview in the Sun on Saturday that she wasn't expecting massive audiences.
"Blind Date got 18 million viewers at its peak but that's never going to happen again."
But she has no intention of calling it a day and she's "is not bothered what channel it is on" as long as she can do about 10 shows a year.
"The worst thing is to do what Frank Sinatra did and have four comebacks. I would never announce that I'm retiring. It's foolish."
Elsewhere last night, ITV1's new take on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple once again proved a hit with viewers between 9pm and 11pm.
The Murder at the Vicarage, in which Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple was joined by guest stars including Jane Asher, Robert Powell, Derek Jacobi and Stephen Tompkinson, attracted 7.9 million viewers and a 32% audience share.
Over on BBC1 between 8.50pm and 10.15pm, Test the Nation: the National 2004 Test was watched by 5.6 million viewers and attracted a 22% audience share.
LA Confidential, the drama about 1950s Hollywood starring Kim Bassinger, drew 2.6 million to BBC2 while The Band Aid story on Channel 4 got 1.7 million.
After the BBC1 news bulletin at 10.35pm, Test the Nation concluded with 4.5 million viewers and a 27% audience share.
Before that, a rare Sunday night outing for Casualty brought 6.7 million viewers - a 26% audience share - to BBC1 between 8pm and 8.50pm.
But despite offering the wedding of Abs and Ellen, Casualty could not outdo ITV1 medical drama The Royal in the ratings.
The Royal was watched by 7.2 million viewers and attracted a 27% audience share between 8pm and 9pm.
· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
