BRITAIN’S FIRST TELEVISED LEADERS DEBATE A HIT

The first-ever televised debate between the leaders of Britain’s Labor, Conservative, and Liberal parties attracted 9.4 million viewers — roughly 37 percent of the overall TV audience — on ITV Thursday night, clobbering the hit longrunning soaps Coronation Street and East Enders. In reporting the results, Britain’s Guardian newspaper called them “impressive” and observed that very few regular shows “attract these sort of figures on a regular basis nowadays, with the fragmentation of viewing across hundreds of digital channels.”