An attempt by GB News to resuscitate audience figures by calling in former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has not paid off, according to the latest figures.
The channel turned to the politician as its saviour in mid-July this year, hoping to recoup some lost views.
At first, it appeared the gamble had paid off, with a new prime-time show titled “Farage” attracting 107,000 views on its debut.
The show managed to best the BBC by 14,000 viewers and rival Sky by 72,500 and was still out-competing the competition in early August, when it gained 145,100 viewers on August 5.
It included a segment called Talking Pints, in which guests were invited on to discuss the latest issues over a beer.
But while it may seem that Mr Farage has managed to reignite GB News from its dimming embers, this is not the case.
Average viewing figures posted on August 13 show he failed to match up to the BBC last week.
When Farage started at 7pm on August 12, 64,000 viewers had tuned in, while 114,000 people watched Outside Source on the BBC News Channel.
The figures also show GB News is still losing viewers, with the average number of people tuning in having dropped by more than 20,000 per day since its debut in June.
A week after the channel launched, GB News had sustained a viewership of 38,000.
By July 16, this had dropped to 18,000, and by August 12, this was 17,000.
The highest viewer count GB News attracted last week was 23,000, which it achieved on August 9.
Attention has now turned to question whether Andrew Neil will ever return to retake his regular slot on GB News and help recover some viewers.
He left two weeks after the show’s debut, and has not returned since.
Related: Dominic Raab spotted on a beach in Crete as Kabul fell to the Taliban