15 Apr 10

Lights, Camera, Action

Political history will be made tonight when ITV broadcasts the first ever prime ministerial TV debate.

Three decades after Mrs Thatcher declined to take part in a leaders debate on the grounds that “We’re not electing a President, we’re choosing a Government”, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are scheduled to appear in a carefully choreographed 90 minute live programme.

They will answer questions chosen by the audience and from viewers' e-mails, and the first broadcast will focus mainly on domestic issues.

ITV1 will broadcast the show from 2030 tonight in Manchester. Sky and the BBC will host debates on successive Thursdays. As this is a first for UK TV, estimates on Audience Delivery vary widely, from a conservative (with a small “c”) 7 million viewers up to 20 million.

Televised political debates have played an integral part in American elections for decades, and are often cited as crucial vote winning tool. The TV debate between JFK and Nixon was seen as a sea-change in American politics; the first time style won out over substance, and is cited as a major factor in JFK’s success.

In substance, the candidates were closely matched. Indeed, those who heard the first debate on the radio pronounced Nixon the winner. But the 70 million who watched television saw a candidate still sickly and obviously discomforted by Kennedy's smooth delivery and charisma. Those television viewers focused on what they saw, not what they heard. Studies of the audience indicated that, among television viewers, Kennedy was perceived the winner of the first debate by a very large margin.

Source: BBC News, Museum TV