More than four million viewers tuned in to watch the second leaders’ debate last night on various TV channels, figures showed today.
Sky News hosted the televised stand-off between the three party leaders – Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg – on the subject of international affairs.
More than 2.1 million viewers watched the debate on Sky News, hosted by Adam Boulton.
The 90-minute debate was also shown on BBC television with well over a million people watching the clash on the BBC News Channel.
More than half a million also tuned in on Sky3 with some 310,000 watching BBC2’s repeat of the debate late last night.
Last week’s debate on ITV attracted an average of 9.4 million people; using a breakdown of five-minute segments of the programme, hosted by Alastair Stewart, the peak audience was found to have reached 10.3 million at 9pm.
The total live audience peaked between 9pm and 9.15pm, when nearly 4.6 million people were watching the debate, with the biggest audience being on Sky News.
John Ryley, head of Sky News, said: “It is clear that the leaders’ debates have struck a chord with the British public and energised the election campaign, just as we hoped they would when we called on the three main party leaders to join in a televised debate.
“I am delighted that so many people chose to watch Sky News’ coverage on all of the platforms where it was available.”
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