The amount raised so far for this year’s Red Nose Day has reached £73,026,234.

The latest figure was revealed two days after the live TV telethon for Comic Relief aired to very mixed reviews on social media due to a number of sound and technical issues and the use of pre-watershed profanity.

Despite the criticism over the broadcast, which was watched by an average of 6.2 million viewers on the night, the public dug deep to raise money for those in need across the world.

Red Nose Day
Red Nose Day (Gary Moyes/BBC/PA)

Comic Relief’s co-founder Sir Lenny Henry said: “Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has helped to raise an incredible amount of money this Red Nose Day for people who really need it most here in the UK and across the world.

“From the fantastic people across the UK who baked cakes, hosted parties and wore crazy outfits to work and school, to those who took on Red Nose Day challenges and donated, your money is seriously going to change lives.

“On behalf of everyone at Comic Relief, we cannot thank you enough.”

Comic Relief was launched over 30 years ago by Sir Lenny and filmmaker Richard Curtis, and has helped over 11.7 million people in Africa and almost almost 70,000 vulnerable young people since the last Red Nose Day in 2015.

The event two years ago raised £99,418,831, the highest total ever.

A final campaign total for this year’s Comic Relief will be revealed in the summer.

Fans went on Twitter on Friday night during Red Nose Day’s televised event to complain about several comedy elements of the show, including one in which a fake penis was shown before the 9pm watershed, and many were unimpressed as the broadcast was marred by sound problems.