Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate peaks at 5.5m viewers

The head-to-head general election debate show between the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Kier Starmer, drew a peak of 5.5 million viewers on Tuesday June 5.

Source: ITV

Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate averaged at five million viewers, according to the broadcaster.

This represented an increase of almost two million viewers on the Conservative Prime Minister debate in 2022.

The hour-long debate aired ahead of the July 4 UK general election. It was moderated by Julie Etchingham, taking place in front of a live studio audience.

The pair discussed issues covering immigration, the NHS, and the economy, among more.

ITV said the show was also the biggest current affairs audience on any channel since last year’s King’s Coronation, and the biggest on ITV since Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry in 2022.

In addition, The ITV Election Interviews, which followed the debate was watched by 1.3 million viewers across ITV1 and streamer ITVX, with a peak of 2.6 million. The pubcaster confirmed it was best performance in the slot this year and up on the slot average by 52%.

ITV revealed the leaders’ debate on ITV1, popular reality series Love Island on ITV2 and the Women’s 2025 Euro qualifying game between England and France on ITV4, altogether gained ITV a 71% share across 16-34 year-old viewers.