Last night's BBC leaders' debate. Photo by William Cherry/Presseye

In a futher hint that the public are far more energised by this election than they were almost a year ago, the audience for the BBC debate leapt by 75% from that which watched the corresponding debate last year.

The figures follow a significant increase for the UTV leaders’ debate a fortnight ago - which was watched by 42% more people than a year ago - and increases in viewing figures for other pre-election television programmes.

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Tuesday night’s debate was watched on BBC One Northern Ireland by an average of 172,000 people - 31% of all people watching TV in Northern Ireland at the time. The network average for that slot is 24%. Those figures do not include those who watched it on the BBC News Channel.

Last year’s pre-election debate had an average audience of 98,000 people, an 18% share of the total audience.

Last year’s debate went out an hour earlier - in the 8pm to 9pm slot - but even accounting for that difference, the share of the total audience was still up 72%.

The figures are based on overnight viewing data and do not include all viewers who have recorded the programme or will watch it on the BBC iPlayer.