The Casual Vacancy's second episode dropped by nearly 2 million viewers from last week, overnight data reveals.
BBC One's adaptation of JK Rowling's novel brought in an average 4.78m (20.5%) at 9pm. Earlier, Countryfile appealed to 7.65m (34.3%) at 7pm.
Call the Midwife remained easily on top of the Sunday ratings with 8.63m (33.2%) at 8pm, which is down by around 300,000 viewers from last week.
On BBC Two, Top Gear attracted 5.27m (20.3%) at 8pm, followed by Dragons' Den with 2.77m (11.9%) at 9pm and Meet the UKIPers with 1.32m (8.0%) at 10pm.
ITV's Get Your Act Together came to an end with 2.51m (11.0%) at 7pm, while All Star Family Fortunes entertained 2.65m (10.2%) at 8.15pm. Mr Selfridge continued with 3.51m (15.1%) at 9pm (269k/1.7% on +1).
On Channel 4, Indian Summers dropped around 700k from last week's launch to 1.88m (8.1%) at 9pm (323k/2.0%). Auction House brought in 1.03m (4.0%) at 8pm (192k/0.8%).
Channel 5's showing of Top Gun thrilled 757k (4.0%) at 9pm (138k/1.2%).
On ITVBe, The Only Way Is Essex returned with 518k (3.2%) at 10pm. BBC Three's I Survived a Zombie Apocalypse gathered 316k (2.0%) at 10pm.
