Megyn Kelly’s Alex Jones interview a ratings flop

Megyn Kelly’s controversial interview with Alex Jones on NBC ended up a distant third in the network ratings race during its first half hour on Sunday night.

According to Nielsen Media Research, “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly” brought in an average of 3.5 million viewers, marking the fewest viewers the show has drawn since debuting on June 4.

Kelly’s news magazine trailed both a repeat episode of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” which delivered 5.3 million viewers, and U.S. Open golf coverage on Fox, which was the highest-rated program in the 7:00 p.m. ET timeslot.

Among the key 18 to 49-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most, a re-run of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” beat Kelly and “60 Minutes” by almost 40 percent.

Kelly’s program has been declining week-over-week from a rating perspective since launching three weeks ago with an episode featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin that registered an average of 6.2 million viewers.

{mosads}Kelly’s interview with Jones, a conspiracy theorist and radio host, was criticized in some circles, including by families of the Sandy Hook shooting massacre that left 20 young children and six adults dead, in the days leading up to the broadcast. Jones has described the shooting as a hoax.

Sponsors including J.P. Morgan Chase pulled their ads on the program as families in Newtown, Conn. implored Kelly to pull the interview.

–This report was updated at 1:24 p.m.