Interest in the Tony Awards telecast was even lower than usual this year, as CBS drew just 6 million viewers for Sunday’s three-hour special, likely the smallest audience on record for the event.

Despite facing lackluster competition on the broadcast networks and no big sports draws on cable, the Tony Awards were down nearly 1 million viewers from last year.

The smallest overall audience prior to last night was 6.3 million in 2008.

Viewership drifted downward throughout the telecast, too, starting with about 7 million in the 8 o’clock half-hour before closing to about 5.4 million when ‘’Once’’ was awarded the prize for best musical.