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Primary Debates and Forums
Thursday, August 6, 2015 in Dana Center at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH.
About | More Pre-Debate
Main Debate
L-R: Christie, Rubio, Carson, Walker, Trump, Bush, Huckabee, Cruz, Paul and Kasich. FOX News Channel
Thursday,
August
6,
2015
at
9:00-11:00 p.m. E.T.
Post-Debate | Video
| Transcript (2)
Sponsors: FOX News Channel and
Facebook in conjunction with the Ohio Republican Party.
Candidates: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson,
Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco
Rubio, Donald Trump and Scott Walker. [10 total]
Moderator:
Special Report
anchor Bret Baier, The Kelly File anchor Megyn Kelly and FOX
News
Sunday
host
Chris Wallace.
Audience:
About
4,500.
Tickets
were
available
through
the
Ohio
Republican
Party.
Individuals
could
apply
at
Debate@OhioGOP.org from July 24
to 5:00 p.m. on July 31, providing first and last name, email address
and number of tickets requested (four maximum).
Broadcast: FOX News Channel, as well as on the network’s other platforms, including FOX News Radio, FOX News Mobile and FOXNews.com.
Format:
Candidates
had
one
minute
to
answer
each
question
and
30
seconds for rebuttals.
Overview:
All
eyes
were
on
Donald
Trump.
The
moderators
seemed
to
have
it
in
for
him.
Brett
Baier's
first question to the candidates was,
"Is there anyone on stage, and can I see hands, who is unwilling
tonight to pledge your support to the eventual nominee of the
Republican party and pledge to not run an independent campaign against
that person." Trump was the only one to raise his hand, drawing
boos from the audience. However, it was a later exchange which
reverberated in the days following the debate. When Megyn Kelly
asked about Trump's remarks on
women, Trump joked about Rosie O'Donnell, then explained, "I don't
frankly have time for total political correctness" and "oftentimes it's
fun, it's kidding." In a post-debate interview on CNN, Trump made
a controversial statement about Kelly, drawing more criticism.
Trump's presence on the stage provided a big boost to ratings. Nielsen Media Research reported an average of 24 million viewers watched the debate making it, according to FOX, "the highest-rated primary debate in television history as well as the highest-rated non-sports cable telecast of all time in total viewers."
Undercard Debate
Thursday,
August
6,
2015
at
5:00 p.m. E.T.
Post-Debate | Video
|
Transcript
Sponsors: FOX News Channel, Facebook
and the Ohio Republican Party.
Candidates: Carly Fiorina, Jim
Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Rick Perry, and
Rick
Santorum. [7 total]
Moderator:
America’s
Newsroom co-anchors
Bill
Hemmer
and
Martha
MacCallum.
Audience:
Mostly
empty.
Broadcast: FOX News Channel, as well as on the network’s other platforms, including FOX News Radio, FOX News Mobile and FOXNews.com.
Format:
Scheduled
for
one
hour
with
four
commercial
breaks,
but
ran
longer
(debate
time
without
ads
was
1:07:22).
Candidates
had
one minute
to answer each question and 30 seconds for rebuttals. One
lightening round. Closing statements.
Overview: FOX News had originally planned just one debate limited to the top ten "in the five most recent national polls, as recognized by FOX News leading up to August 4th at 5 PM/ET." Under pressure, on June 10, FOX announced the additional forum to be held in advance of the main debate. It was originally schedule to be 90 minutes, then pared to an hour, but allowed to run long. This debate was dubbed the "kiddy table debate." According to Nielsen Media Research via FOX this debate averaged 6.1 million total viewers.