Belen Escudero |
Madrid (EFE) the popular leader has accepted at least a “face to face”.
Thirty years ago, in 1993, the first televised and radio debate between two candidates for Moncloa took place (eight stations also broadcast it). Felipe González and José María Aznar sat face to face on an Antena 3 TV dish and, between them, the journalist Manuel Campo Vidal as moderator.
The advisory teams of the two agreed in detail on each of the details: the format, the thematic blocks, the set, the order of intervention -which was a source of tension in the last moments of the program-, the arrival at the chain… up to the average temperature that the studio had to have (twenty degrees).
Primer debate: 24/5/1993
It lasted more than two hours: it was broadcast between 10:30 p.m. and 12:44 a.m., and the average audience was 9.6 million viewers, although at some point it reached up to eleven million, and 61 .8% share of the screen (the percentage of viewers who watched the program over total television consumption).
More than 15.5 million Spaniards tuned in to the debate for at least one minute, a fact that made it the most watched in the last fifteen years of the channel, with the exception of football matches and the last broadcast of “Farmacia de Guard”.
A week later, they returned to confront their programs on another private television, Tele 5, which announced it as “the great decisive debate for the political destiny of this country.”
Second debate: 5/31/1993
It was hosted by Luis Mariñas and lasted two hours and 45 minutes, and was broadcast between 10:30 p.m. on May 31 and 1:18 a.m. on June 1.
The average audience was 10.5 million viewers and the share was 75.3%, that is, out of every hundred people who watched TV at that time, 75 were following the debate, and it became the second most watched broadcast of the history of the channel up to that moment.
These first two democracy debates were tuned in for at least one minute by more than 47% of the population, according to calculations by the audience and data measurement company Kantar Media, transferred to EFE by the consulting firm Barlovento. Figures that also confirm that these have not been the most watched debates by Spaniards.
The debate with the highest audience: third debate on 2/25/2008
The most followed debate was the first between Zapatero and Rajoy. It was moderated by Manuel Campo Vidal, produced by the Television Academy, and twenty-two channels chose to rebroadcast his signal, as well as radio and internet stations.
The total average audience of the channels that broadcast it was more than 13 million viewers, making it one of the spaces with the highest audience in the history of television in Spain, with a screen share of 59 ,1 %. The golden minute reached it with 15 million people
More than 22.5 million Spaniards contacted at some point with the debate that hosted the Palacio de Congresos in Madrid.
The debate was mostly followed by La1 on TVE, which achieved an average audience of 8 million viewers with a 36.4% “share”.
Fourth discussion; 3/3/2008
The second debate between Zapatero and Rajoy, moderated by Olga Viza and produced by the Academy, also had a good audience result, although it registered one million less than the previous one: almost twelve million viewers, with a share of 56.3%, almost three percentage points less.
Nearly 21.7 million viewers (800,000 less than in the first) watched the debate for a few moments.
Fifth debate: 7/11/2011
The dialectical battle between Rajoy and Rubalcaba had 12.5 million viewers, with a share of 54.2% in the sum of the total channels that broadcast it.
The most viewed was La1, with 5.4 million viewers and a 24.8% share, but in the total duration of the debate at least 22.3 million people contacted the broadcast at some point on some of the channels .
Sixth and last debate: 12/14/2015
The ‘duel’ between Rajoy and Sánchez registered an average audience of 9.7 million people with a share of 48.7% in the sum of the total channels that broadcast it, but more than 19 million people were ‘hooked’ to the program for at least one minute.
The most watched channel was the Sixth, with 2.9 million viewers, followed by Antena 3 with 2.7 and La1 with 2.6.