Tuesday was the hottest day of the year in the UK, with temperatures hitting a sweat-inducing 33.4C (92.1F) in some parts of the country.
No surprise then that Brits left their houses to make the most of the sunshine. The impact on TV viewing, however, was notable.
TV ratings specialist Overnights.tv has crunched the numbers and claimed that viewing fell to its lowest point since 2002, when the current data collection methods were introduced by the Broadcasters Audience Research Board.
Just 10.7% of the UK population of 65 million watched television on Monday. Business Insider analysis shows that an average of 7.6 million people were glued to the box between 6am and 2am, which is below the average of 10.1 million for the past decade.
Baked off! Hot weather turns people off TV - only 10.7% of UK viewers watched TV yesterday - a historic low. Will this lead to high catchup?
— Overnights.tv (@overnightstv) July 20, 2016The historic low was also noted by Alexander Gardiner, managing director of Shiver — the factual programme making arm of ITV's production business ITV Studios.
With it being the hottest day of the year yesterday Total TV viewing was at its lowest since records go back.
— Alexander Gardiner (@AlexanderGardin) July 20, 2016The biggest show of the day was BBC1's flagship soap opera "EastEnders," which was watched by 4.8 million people at 7.30pm.
In the peak viewing hour of 9pm, nothing managed more than 2.5 million viewers, which is very rare for British television and will have contributed to the historic low.
Temperatures in some parts of the UK on Wednesday remained high, with the mercury reaching 31C (87.8F).
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