The show had a 10% audience share but faced stiff competition from the BBC's Olympic coverage, which averaged 5m viewers on BBC Two and peaked with 8.8m at 9.50pm on BBC One for the men's 1500m final.
Five's repeat of 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' had 2.5m viewers, the same as ITV's ailing reality show 'The Block'.
In the final 10 minutes, 'NY-LON's audience peaked at 2.1m viewers.
'NY-LON', shorthand for New York-London, is the brainchild of Simon Burke, who was behind last year's Channel 4 adaptation of Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth'.
The transatlantic love story stars Quincy Jones's daughter Rashida Jones, who also stars in this year's 'Little Black Book alongside Brittany Murphy, as Edie, a New Yorker immersed in the indie music scene.
Stephen Moyer plays the male lead, Michael, a hard-nosed Essex boy stockbroker. Over the course of seven episodes, the characters will flit to and fro across the Atlantic as they try to make their relationship work.
'NY-LON' is the first British drama to be filmed partly on location in New York, in the trendy Lower East Side.
John Yorke, the head of drama at Channel 4, has promised to deliver more quality long-running British drama following the success of American imports 'The Sopranos' and 'Sex in the City'.
'NY-LON' received a mixed response from the critics. The Times said it lacked humour, adding "the dialogue often sounds as if it was manufactured in a laboratory". The Independent was more upbeat. Thomas Sutcliffe, the TV editor, said: "I'd like to see more of it" and described the storyline as "a right banker".
Channel 4 said it hoped the audience would climb over the next few weeks. 'Shameless', another heavily marketed Channel 4 drama, achieved a slightly better audience of 2.3m viewers with its opening episode earlier this year.
'NY-LON' has been advertised on bus shelters, billboards, the London Underground and in celebrity magazines and national newspapers.
The campaign was devised in-house by Channel 4 Marketing and media planning and buying was through OMD UK.
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