Taking presidential debates out of the commission’s hands virtually guarantees a decline in viewership.

Elise Amendola

FILE – ABC World News Tonight Anchor David Muir (left) stands with ABC News Live Anchor Lindsey Davis as he addresses the audience on Friday, February 7, 2020 in Manchester, New Hampshire. A presidential debate was planned between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The quick organization this week, Thursday, May 16, 2024, is good news for CNN and ABC News. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Planned presidential debate The election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, quickly organized this week, is a coup for CNN and ABC News, but is virtually guaranteed to be one of the lowest-profile general election races ever. ing.

two campaigns with skirt The Commission on Presidential Debates has been organizing this event for 36 years with the goal of reaching as many people as possible.

ABC, which has appointed David Muir and Lindsey Davis as moderators for the debate scheduled for September 10, has announced that it will be able to simulcast it on any U.S. television network or streaming service of its choice. CNN had not announced by early Friday morning whether it would do the same for its June 27 debate with questioners Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

A debate will be held between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump’s choice as his running mate. Broadcast schedule It will air on CBS this summer.

The two 2020 debates between Biden and Trump were each carried on at least 16 networks, according to Nielsen. The first time he was watched by 73.1 million viewers and the second time he was watched by 63 million people.

The debates that precede a party’s nomination process (Mr. Trump is absent this year) are typically organized and broadcast by individual media organizations. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the public policy center, said the committee’s organizing tradition during the general election campaign is different. group of experts Ten years ago, Annenberg organized an initiative to find ways to increase viewership.

“This is a national debate,” Jamison said.

For CNN’s leaders, there’s a huge temptation to keep it all to themselves. It will likely be the most-watched event ever for a network that has struggled in the ratings. CEO of CNN, mark thompsonwhich announced the agreement during a sales presentation for advertisers in New York on Wednesday, emphasized tying the discussion to brands.

“When people want to say something important, they say it on CNN,” Thompson said.

CNN announced Wednesday that the debate will be broadcast live on its international and Spanish-speaking networks, and will also be streamed on CNN Max and CNN.com.

Cord-cutting of cable and satellite services has reduced the number of people who can watch CNN’s main television network. As of May 2020, CNN was available in 71% of American homes with a TV. This month, it’s just below 54%, Nielsen said.

If the debate continued on CNN alone, it would face harsh criticism that it was not the right thing to do in the public spirit, but ABC moved quickly to avoid that.

Jamison said viewership would likely decline if the event was not shared due to the political polarization that is also pervasive in the media. Will FOX News viewers, after years of listening to their favorite politicians and media figures criticize CNN, turn to CNN for debate or skip it altogether?

It’s still unclear how many other networks will relay the debate, even if given the chance. Only PBS says it will. Other networks have not yet made any commitments.

Some of those executives may have to swallow hard to get other network personalities on the air, and some regular viewers may take a liking to them and switch allegiance. There will also be a risk. However, the pressure to proceed with the discussion for public service reasons will be very strong.

Despite concerns about how many people will watch, Jamieson said it’s ironic that there is a lot to like about the proposed ground rules for the event. For now, the plan is to hold the event without spectators at a television studio.

This is what the Annenberg Group proposed a decade ago, saying that audiences responding to candidates’ statements are often distracting and that those audiences are typically filled with partisans from both sides.

If both sides agree to a rule that requires one candidate’s microphone to be turned off while the other candidate is answering questions, it would be possible for politicians to interrupt the other party’s conversation, which has been happening frequently lately. She said it would go a long way in solving the problem of

“If someone had told me there would be good news this year in terms of political debate, I would have told them they were delusional,” she says.

___

Copyright 2024Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.