Weak Al-Jazeera America start belies Nielsen's expectations

Al-Jazeera America, the United States offshoot of the Qatar-based international news organization, has recorded very low viewer ratings on its opening day in the traditional cable news network.

The channel's launch drew just 22,000 people, which was below Nielsen's minimum accuracy threshold, the Washington Times reports.

According to the report, the rating firm could not make an accurate estimate of the number of viewers for the new channel.

The channel, which replaced the low-rated Current TV, was launched on Tuesday.

However, the highest-rated show on the network last week was the Thursday-evening edition of "Real Money With Ali Velshi," which drew 54,000 total viewers.

Al-Jazeera America is reportedly running in only 40 million homes presently, the report added.

Al-Jazeera has frequently drawn both intense criticism and praise in the U.S. for reporting that was considered critical of American policy.

New York lawmaker Kieran Michael Lalor called for the boycott of the network from the basic cable package.