A method and apparatus for adaptively controlling the backlight to reduce flicker in a display is provided. The apparatus includes a display, a backlight providing illumination for said display, a backlight control module for providing backlight control signals to said backlight, and an adaptive transition rate module. The module calculates an adaptive parameter based on a magnitude of change between backlight requirements for two frames, determining a smoothing function based on the adaptive parameter, and using said smoothing function to modify said backlight control signals. Techniques for adaptively controlling the illumination of the backlight according to the difference in the illumination levels of two different sets of image data are also disclosed.