Channel 4's Ask the Chancellors debate drew 1.8 million viewers last night. To put that figure into context, that's about double the average audience for Channel 4 News.

The station will be satisfied with the number and more than satisfied with the "noise" its programme has created in the run-up to the broadcast and since. Ask the Chancellors led the BBC Ten O'Clock News and Newsnight last night and featured on the front pages of all this morning's quality papers.

As a forerunner to the leaders' debates -- which are likely to kick off on Thursday 15 April and run for three consecutive Thursdays -- it looks promising, too. After all, the Chancellor and would-be chancellors are mere warm-up acts for the Prime Minister and would-be PMs. And ITV and the BBC, which are showing debates one and three respectively, deliver more viewers each evening in any case.

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