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.
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.
Previously the event has been broadcast on BBC One before moving to BBC Two after the 10 O’Clock News. This year it was broadcast solely on BBC One.
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.
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