The first political leaders election debate attracted one-third the audience of the annual Late Late Toy Show.

TV3 said an average of 430,000 viewers watched the shouting match between Enda Kenny, Micheál Martin, Gerry Adams and Joan Burton. The audience peaked at 502,000 viewers just after 10pm when prime time programming concluded on other stations.

For the post-debate Tonight programme with Ivan Yates, the audience average was 224,000 people.

The audience for the Late Late Toy Show last November was 1,556,000.

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