Hot Off the Press Release: Viewers Vote for TVNZ

And the winner of last night’s debate? TVNZ 1!

Here’s the media release:

Huge audiences turn to TVNZ for 1 News Your Vote 2020 Leaders’ Debate

More than a million New Zealanders tuned into the first live Leaders Debate between Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins on TVNZ 1 last night.

Tuesday evening’s face-off was the first-time voters got to see the leaders of the country’s biggest parties going head-to-head in primetime debate.

The 90min programme reached 1.15 million TV viewers across the broadcast, with an average audience of 657,800 (AP5+). An additional 61,700 live streams were watched on TVNZ OnDemand, catchup viewing is now available on the platform.

TVNZ continued their winning streak with entertainment alternatives across the line-up drawing big audience numbers last night.

Together, TVNZ 1, 2 and DUKE achieved a massive 63% overnight audience share across the peak schedule (6pm – 10.30pm), the third highest network share achieved in the past 10 years – only exceeded on both occasions by TVNZ’s screening of the Rugby World Cup in 2019.