Last Thursday saw the first ever live televised leader's debate on ITV1. The first of three broadcasts saw David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown put under the spotlight for 90 minutes, uninterrupted, with no advert breaks. In what should have been a testing environment for all three leaders, the programme  was in fact damp, sterile and almost what seemed like rehearsed, with some 76 rules covering areas like audience participation and 90 second introductions from each leader.

Unsurprisingly however, the programme was the highest viewed programme throughout the day on all channels, beating off the likes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale, attracting 7.9 million and 6.6 million respectively. What is surprising is that the programme only gained an average audience of 9.4 million, peaking at 9.9 million between 9pm and 9:15pm. Given that in October 2009, the BBC's controversial Question Time featuring the BNP's Nick Griffin attracted 7.9 million viewers, most would have expected the first debate to be viewed by more. Saturday's premiere of the new series of Britain's Got Talent was viewed by a strong 10.6 million, reinforcing the UK's passion and interest in reality TV and talent shows. Perhaps the scheduling of the live debate or the format it was broadcast in just wasn't appealing enough for a larger audience, even though it was a UK first.

Another TV first saw ITV tracking reaction from the debate on their website, itv.com. The debate was available to watch live and the reactions of Twitter users were made available to people viewing the live stream. A Twitter tool tracked posts by 5000 selected Twitter users, using a 'sentiment tool' in which reactions were gauged between 1 to 5 on each leader and then aggregated to give an overall minute by minute impression of what the Twitterati thought about the debate and it's speakers.

Both BBC and Sky News are to follow with live debates in the next two weeks, with Sky News' on 22nd and the BBC's on 29th. Sky will also be launching their new Sky News HD channel on 22nd, hoping to draw as many people to the debate as possible. It's expected that neither channel will beat the likes of ITV with a prediction of around 7 million viewing the BBC's debate. With the novelty factor over, and mixed reactions from the first debate, it's likely that ITV will stand firm as the ratings winner.

The strength of TV as a platform to communicate with a mass audience has been illustrated once again. Which other media could reach 10 million viewers in a single seating? Which other media can shift public opinion so rapidly and so effectively? Whichever way the election swings, TV will have played a unique and powerful role in the public's decision making process.