Al Jazeera has made several efforts to penetrate U.S. markets, all of which have been subject to criticism and the latest of which – Al Jazeera America – was marked by a misstep that saw it launch with a day one interview of conspiracy theorist Stephen Walt.

The station’s first round of ratings have been announced, and – per Al Arabiya – can not be heartening to the station’s Qatari funders:

On Monday, Al-Jazeera America’s (AJAM) prime-time show “America Tonight” drew in just 27,000 viewers. In comparison, Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” attracted 2.97 million, MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow” bagged 970,000, and CNN’s “Anderson Cooper” drew 627,000, reported Variety magazine, citing data provided by Nielsen.

AJAM’s most popular show of the week was last Thursday night’s “Real Money with Ali Velshi,” which drew 54,000 viewers, according to U.S. media reports. The channel’s launch hour, 3pm on Aug. 20, averaged 22,000 viewers. However, this figure is essentially an estimate as it is below Nielsen’s minimum accuracy threshold, reported Arabian Business.

The numbers came despite an aggressive PR push that saw ads placed across prominent American print and radio outlets, including the New York Times and NPR.

The station responded to the figures by brushing aside concerns and instead emphasizing that it was “extremely pleased with the demographic results from our first week,” with “the median age of AJ America’s viewers [being] 55 years old.”

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