TELEVISION FIGURES:MONDAY NIGHT'S memorable and final presidential debate attracted a peak audience of almost 900,000.
Though there had already been three televised debates and four radio debates, along with several debates that were not broadcast, the public appetite for the election remains undiminished.
The audience for the Frontlinedebate peaked at 899,350 at 10.30pm, at about the time Martin McGuinness made his sensational allegation against front-runner Seán Gallagher.
The debate attracted an average of 786,700 viewers, almost 48 per cent of the audience share.
The figures surpassed the numbers that watched the first debate on RTÉ's Late Late Show. It had an average audience of 654,300 viewers peaking at 723,000, attracting 46 per cent of the audience share.
The Prime Time debate had an average of 654,000 viewers.
TV3’s debate with Vincent Browne had an average audience of 367,000 and a peak audience of 443,000 viewers on October 5th.
TG4’s bilingual debate attracted a peak audience of 327,000 viewers for its first airing at 7pm last Wednesday. The repeat at 11.05pm had some 162,000 people tuning in.
A moratorium on all broadcasting will come into place from 2pm today with the candidates likely to make their last pitch this morning. The moratorium will last until the polls close on tomorrow night.
