People's Choice show loses viewers

Viewers for the People's Choice Awards show, pre-recorded because of the Writers Guild of America strike, were nearly half those last year.

Presenter Queen Latifah was recorded beforehand approaching winners on location and presenting their awards. They gave acceptance speeches to tape which were collected together into a show on CBS.

It achieved a record low for the awards event of 6m viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Last year it was 11.3m.

The audience share among 18-49s was also steeply down and figures show viewers switched off during the show.

The show has only attracted audiences below 10m twice, in 2005 and 2006, and this year's was by far the lowest. It was also one of CBS's worst performances for a Tuesday night this season.