UTV debate ‘most watched’, but more viewed Assembly tussles

UTV’S election debate on Monday night grabbed an average viewing figure of 88,000, it was revealed yesterday.

The broadcaster announced the programme — the first of two election specials — was the “most watched” in its 9pm time slot in Northern Ireland.

The hour-long General Election debate had a 16% average audience share — peaking at one point at a 20% share with 112,000 viewers.

Terry Brennan, Head of News and Programmes at UTV, said it was: “Another strong performance from the UTV election team. Marc Mallet put the pol- iticians through their paces in a lively studio debate which covered the issues that matter to our viewers, making the UTV Election Debate the most watched programme in Northern Ireland at that time last night.”

But the overall figure was significantly down on the equivalent statistics for debates during the Assembly election battle in March.

Then, the pre-recorded UTV programme, hosted by Marc Mallet, had a 23% share, while around 172,000 viewers tuned in for the final leaders’ debate on the BBC — which was up more than 70% on the previous year.

It was seen at the time as an indication that the public was more engaged in the Assembly election than in others in recent years, and an early sign of a higher turnout as proved to be the case.

The trend then was also confirmed by BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan’s two election specials. The two Nolan Live TV election debates had average audiences of 139,000 and audience shares of 44% and 43% .

Also, the main televised BBC politics programme — The View — had an average audience of 98,000, a 31% share.

It is understood that those figures are significantly up on the corresponding programmes before last year’s Assembly election.

SINN Fein leader Michelle O’Neill pulled out of last night’s BBC NI Leaders’ Debate due to illness, 24 hours after Alliance leader Naomi Long took unwell during the UTV election debate.

The republican leader was replaced by Upper Bann candidate John O’Dowd .

It is understood that Mrs O’Neill (below) had lost her voice.

It marked the second time in two days that the leader of a major party had taken ill as the general election looms.

On Monday night, the UTV election debate was temporarily halted after Mrs Long felt faint.

However, after a 10-minute break and a glass of water she was able to return to her rostrum and take an active part in proceedings.

Yesterday, an Alliance spokesman insisted that Mrs Long has “no health issues” despite the fainting spell.

He said that the party leader had simply been affected by a lack of sleep following the death of Alliance stalwart Mervyn Jones, as well as suffering from the heat of the studio lights.

Mrs Long was reportedly “back on the campaign trail” ahead of the second debate yesterday, and subsequently spoke at the funeral of the Alliance stalwart, who represented the Pottinger ward from 1985 until 2001 and then the Victoria ward, now known as Ormiston, from 2005 until his death.

Mr Jones’ body was discovered by an Alliance member when they went to the former party treasurer’s home, after the 66-year-old failed to attend a council meeting.

Mrs Long told the Belfast Telegraph: “Mervyn and I were friends for over 20 years and I have been naturally very upset since he died.”

Also absent from last night’s debate was DUP leader Arlene Foster, who was in France to mark the centenary of the Battle of Messines. Mrs Foster was represented by Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP candidate for Lagan Valley.

Her absence and Miss O’Neill’s illness meant that neither of the leaders of the two largest parties attended both televised debates.