TV Overnights: 9.9m watch The First Election Debate on ITV1
The First Election Debate on ITV1 last night had a peak of 9.9 million viewers – a 38.6% share of the total TV audience.
On from 8.30pm to 10pm, the Election Debate had an audience average of 9.4 million viewers (a 37% share).
As part of its online offering around the event, ITV tracked a focus group’s reaction to the debate live online with a new tool called The Worm, as well as using Facebook and Twitter to gauge opinion.
The debate was easily the most viewed programme yesterday, beating the soap powerhouses of EastEnders (a 6 million peak), Coronation Street (an 8.2 million peak) and Emmerdale (a 6.8 million peak).
It was a big night for politics on TV, with Question Time also performing well. An average of 2.4 million viewers (18.9%) tuned into the show, on from 10.35pm to 11.35pm, peaking at 2.9 million.
Figures released yesterday by online measurement firm UKOM show that the Conservatives had the most popular political party website in the UK last month.
The site had a 150,000 unique audience, with the Liberal Democrats (115,000 unique audience) overtaking Labour (114,000 unique audience) for the first time since last summer.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.