Election attracts record audience
French contest grips viewers
As might be expected, peak viewing figures coincided with the breaking news that right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy had won with 30.5% of the vote, ahead of socialist candidate Segolene Royal's 25.7%.
Overall, 9.5 million viewers, a 37.2% audience share, watched the show "Presidentielle 2007," which aired from 7:35 p.m. - 10:17 p.m.
Bumper audience reflected high voter turnout, which at 85% was the biggest since the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958.
Pubcaster France 2 drew a respectable 24.2% audience share with 4.9 million viewers, peaking at 7.8 million, or 26.8%, when the results were given.
Paybox Canal Plus' "Guignols" satire puppet show also garnered solid ratings, some 2.4 million viewers, or a 10% audience share.
Second commercial web M6, not known for its news coverage, drew just 3.9% audience share for its election night newscast 7:45 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. but the film afterwards, Gerard Oury's classic French comedy "Le Cerveau," managed to woo 18.1% of the audience away from the political coverage.
Channels cited figures courtesy of Mediametrie.
