2019 General Christmas election.

Could I remind the honourable gentleman that Sky News streams live on YouTube and you can wind it back up to 12hrs to see what happened for yourself?

But anyway I get the impression they were meant to go to Salford at 9pm, then realised for whatever reason they couldn't, so Niall had to fill in for about ten minutes until contact with Salford was re-established and talk about the debate that he hadn't actually seen at that point. After the link threatened to drop out again where it went all blotchy (think YouTube when you drop it down to 144p from a HD video), it seemed happy after that, though the main content was very ad-hoc and one gets the impression Dermot couldn't hear very much through his earpiece.

With an almost replica set it seems. Do think this show is highlighting though how a one to one interview (or Q&As based around one leader at a time) generally serve the viewer better than a debate format.

What’s everyone’s problem with the BBC’s election output coming from Studio B? Just look how little they are using it. It’s perfectly cower is B is what they use is that they’ll use both sides. That’s huge!

Who has knowledge it’ll be at TC1 or at Elstree?

I can't quite work out whether it's the format or the interviewees who are making it more watchable. Some of the questions are a bit hypotheticals-stacked-on-hypotheticals though.

The set isn't identical - no logos on it for one thing! I like the subtle colour changes for each party.

It's just Alastair Stewart tonight with mostly regular ITV News presentation to report about the debate.

The reporters straps at the beginning of their reports though are all in the NaT format.

Despite all this, the broadcasters and the parties are still obsessed with having debates.

It’d be better if the audience wouldn’t clap and holler every two minutes, but as we see on QT every week, this currently divisive era of politics encourages over the top audience reaction.

At least we didn’t get some nutter in the audience shouting out like we often get on QT

That is absolute rubbish.

unpopular opinion coming...Thought about posting this for around 3 hours as I know I'm going to get a lot of disagreement but this place would be boring if we all agreed with each other over everything.
I agree with you to an extent. They have moved news at ten a lot for trivia and scheduled programmes into the slot when they could have quite easily been finished by 10pm

When there is a big breaking story the best we seem to get these days is a 30 second newsflash when they replace a promo after a break. I remember years ago when they closed the news channel that they said they were setting up a breaking news team ready to react but I don't think we ever saw them in action. It must be incredibly annoying for itv news staff to be sat there wanting to be on air but instead we must go back to loose women or a pre recorded quiz show whilst the BBC and Sky are covering it properly. A few times they have put on a programme on facebook but i'm not going to watch that when I can watch a proper news channel, however havinvg it live on itv as an event is unfolding might tempt me over but I'm used to itv doing nothing these days that I probably wouldnt even think about them and just stick with Sky

I don't feel itv's commitment to news is as strong as it used to be. I've gone from watching 3 bullitens a day to hardly ever watching any of it for the last couple of years. Moving news at ten for the nightly show did it no favours and I got sick of switching on at 10 to be greeted with a 3 or 4 minute ad break or pushing it back 15/20/30 mins for sport and other programmes that should not be scheduled in that slot such as 90 min dramas to push the news back meanwhile Sky and BBC start at ten on the dot. bit by bit I just stopped going to channel 3 at 10pm after 20 years.

In terms of the debates I think the vast majority of people couldn't care less about them. its just the broadcasters who love them and its a bit like a sausage waving contest between them. I have previously watched all debates since they started on all channels but I've given this one a miss tonight and will do so with the rest as they are always car crash tv with constant interruptions from the moderator. I understand why they do it to give each equal time and to cram in as many questions as possible but nobody has a chance to get going with an answer before they are stopped, we rarely learn anything new. its always rushed and itv would have been better off with a 90 minute debate to give people chance to give a proper answer but of course we needed to go to Australia for some reality tv trash (yes I know it gets great ratings every year and I used to watch it myself but like a lot of things with itv they just repeat the same thing year in year out) Alternatively they could have started it at 7pm or 7:30pm but heaven forbid if Emmerdale gets moved for 1 night (just so happened to be an hour long episode last night too) fantasy schedule time they could have easily moved Emmerdale to tomorrow night at 7pm -8pm and then had either an hour on Friday or had it alternate with Coronation Street every 30 mins. (another problem with filling the schedule with soaps they have no flexibility) All caught up by the weekend and only Paul O Grady lost from the schedule who could replace the repeat of Julia Bradbury's walks. Minor changes with the 2/3 week notice they had could have given a better debate programme.

The set looked ok but lacked colour. they could have quite easily added some red and blue to the podiums or backdrop to give it a splash of colour and I'm not sure that animating backdrop added anything. Do we really need an audience.? I've read that a lot of people found the clapping annoying

Just out of interest does anyone know what was originally scheduled in for 8-9pm tonight? I'm thinking Martin Lewis Live as a possibility as he's back with his usual 30 min series next Monday and then the live show on Tuesday which seems a bit odd

The problem is, and all these debates suffer from the same, the participants will have rehearsed and rehearsed their responses ad infinitum.The broadcasters are looking for 'salacious' comment and a killer sound bite. There is so much build up and anticipation, it's no real surprise that the whole thing falls flat.

I do have some sympathy with Mr Rich Tea and Richard H, it's all becoming a bit of a self serving circus, and isn't really aiding the democratic process

I agree to some extent. One hour isn’t long enough and, no matter how rigid the moderation, the political-laden atmosphere of such an arena will always yield more of the same bluster from the politicians!

My next comment might be even more unpopular than Richard H’s is: notably, the best interviews I’ve seen so far have been those conducted by Susanna Reid (on GMB), Richard Madeley (This Morning) and Naga Munchetty (BBC Breakfast). And, I believe that’s because the politicians are very much out of their comfort zones on those programmes and the format of those programmes allows for a little less politic and more personality, backfiring to reveal the actual politics for all to see.

As Brekkie (I think) pointed out a few pages ago, Boris was caught against the rails when Naga threw that killer question to him: in what way are you relatable?

The debates (given proper length of time and with proper timing controls on each question) do have a place in the current era.

However, I believe the popular programming also has a big role to play. Be it Lorraine Kelly or Judy Finnigan or Loose Women or whoever, we’ve seen some good interviews from those programmes lately and they’ve grabbed the headlines more than the conventional political programmes have! (Perhaps with the exception of Andrew Neil.....)

But, in this campaign and even in the Brexit months before it, I can’t recall a single stand-out moment or “gotcha” from Peston, Marr, Ridge, Boulton, etc.......

The View is a perfect example of what I’m trying to illustrate. That show has far more political relevance than any other on the US networks, where CNN, Fox and CBS have all become parodies of themselves.