Channel 4’s coverage of the Rio Paralympics opening ceremony peaked at just over 2 million viewers, a fraction of the number that tuned into the home games in London four years ago.
Channel 4 drew an average audience of just 1.3 million viewers across its entire coverage of the ceremony from 9pm to 1.30am, a 12.3% share of the total UK TV audience.
The coverage had 15-minute peak viewing of 2.1 million around 10pm and a 5-minute peak of 2.3m.
The figures were never expected to match the huge interest of the home games on London 2012 when Channel 4 recorded one of its biggest audiences in its history.
The London opening ceremony attracted an average of 7.6 million viewers, and a 15-minute peak of 10.9 million, with an overall 40% share of total TV viewing from 8pm to 12.20am.
The return of BBC1 military drama Our Girl drew an average of 3.8 million viewers and a 19.5% share, the most popular show in the 9pm slot.
Earlier, Great British Bake Off continues to sizzle with the third episode in the latest series attracting an average of 9.7m viewers and a 44.7% share of all TV viewing between 8pm and 9pm.
Viewing was down from the 10.1 million that tuned into the second episode last week.
