So was the debate a hit? Yes and no: the ratings tell a story.
The numbers were good but not great. 1.1 million tuned in Tuesday night  vs 1.3 million compared to three years ago.
A key here is that’s the total number - 1.1 million, the number of people that watched at least one minute, which if you’re one of the participants is not what you want
So the key here is the average. The average was 657,000,  good on any night of regular  programming  but given the nature of the debate, what we can deduce is that a lot of people didn’t hang around for the whole show .
In other words it wasn’t good telly. It wasn’t sticky, it wasn’t a good watch, and if you need the debates to work for you that’s a problem. I personally would have given up if it hadn’t been work.
But the upside is over a million even tuning in does reassure us that at last at least a chunk of us have woken up enough to take an interest, and it bodes well going forwards.
Given we got a result as such, as meandering as parts of it were, it was generally accepted that Collins won and therefore that peaks the interest as to what Ardern does with a defeat and whether she has a new plan for next week.
Toss in a poll or two, and we actually have a race with a good number of interested voters. This is all good for democracy.
It’s also a reminder that right or wrong, good or bad, there is very little in life left that still truly unites a country.
The media landscape is so fragmented and has been for years now. The water cooler days of communal watches have long since passed.
So it’s a reminder that for all its weaknesses and partisan nonsense, how a country is run and who runs it is one of the few things we are happy to sort of gather together and participate in.
In excess 80 per cent of us will eventually vote. Compare it to America where barely half turn out, and their debates will be watched by comparatively a handful compared to ours.
So not a record number, but close enough, and thank god proof at last that we as a country we have worked out this actually counts.