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According to unofficial overnight figures, 'Lost' pulled in 781,000 viewers and a 4.6% share.

The drop is another blow to Sky's decision to outbid Channel 4 for the third and fourth series of 'Lost', which is proving to be a costly acquisition for the channel.

When the series made its debut on Sky One in November, it was averaging around 1.4m viewers.

That figure soon dropped to just under one million until last night's low, while the second series averaged almost 3m viewers on Channel 4. Sky is now paying more than £1 per viewer, a ratio it will find hard to justify.

Sky One's other big US import, ‘24', which like ‘Lost' has been the subject of an outdoor poster campaign drawing attention to its sudden withdrawal from Virgin Media's offering, also dropped viewers.

‘24', which is shown earlier in the evening than ‘Lost', pulled in 395,000 viewers and 1.9%.

E4's teen drama, ‘Skins', is continuing to be a big multi-channel hit, with 900,700 viewers and a 1.1% share.

ITV1's ‘Inspector Morse' spin-off, ‘Lewis', bowed out on a high. The third and final instalment pulled in 8.4m viewers and a 37% share.

Today Virgin Media announced it was to give BSkyB just 30 days to enter talks to reinstate its basic channel package, which Sky pulled from its platform last week, or promised it will face legal action.

The basic package includes Sky One and Sky News, and was pulled from 3.3m Virgin Media subscribers.