Vote 2005: Monday's news ratings

Each day during the election campaign, Digital Spy will be tracking the performance of the major news broadcasters. Check in daily for a roundup of the latest ratings for the terrestrial news programmes and the rolling news channels.

Overnight data for Monday, May 2 follows.

Terrestrials: Summary

Despite viewing figures being down across the board, ITV's (albeit shorter) Early Evening News managed to rank as the day's number one national news programme with a heightened average of 5.43 million viewers (31%) at 6.45pm.

The latest election broadcast from the Conservatives reached a total audience of 10.66 million viewers across the evening.

Channel 4's analysis of the candidates' body language in Election Unspun: What They're Really Thinking drew 1.06 million (4.4%) in the 8pm hour, while at the tail of primetime, Tony Blair's grilling in ITV1's Ask The Leaders averaged 1.21 million (10.1%).

News Channels: Summary

News 24 ultimately had the edge on May Day, largely thanks to a stellar performance during the teatime hours. Overall, the channel averaged 48,000 viewers (0.79%) between 10am and 7pm, compared to Sky News' 43,000 (0.72%) over the same period.

News channels: Primetime Breakdown

7pm - 8pm
Sky News (The Boulton Factor): 34,000 (0.25%)
News 24: 20,000 (0.15%)

8pm - 9pm
Sky News: 16,000 (0.1%)
News 24: 32,000 (0.2%)

9pm - 10pm
Sky News (Nine O'Clock News / Sky News): 14,000 (0.08%)
News 24: 37,000 (0.21%)

10pm - 11pm
Sky News (Sky News At Ten / Sky News): 32,000 (0.23%)
News 24 (BBC News / Business Today): 43,000 (0.29%)

11pm - 12am
Sky News (The Boulton Factor): 42,000 (0.56%)
News 24 (BBC News / Hardtalk): 18,000 (0.24%)

Ratings data supplied by ViewingFigures.com