How to Watch the CNN Presidential Debate
Millions of viewers are set to tune in to the first presidential debate of the 2024 election on June 27, a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The first debate is hosted by CNN, while the second in September will be hosted by ABC. Viewers can watch the first debate live on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, and CNN Max. It will be available to stream without a cable login on CNN.com. It is expected to run for 90 minutes.
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The network has said it will also provide a feed of its production to other networks and digital outlets, the LA Times reports, but will require competitors to adhere to a number of conditions—including adding the network’s on-screen logo and refraining from adding their own anchors and commentators during the breaks or any other portion of the broadcast.
Presidential debates are typically one of the most watched broadcasts of the year in the U.S. More than 73 million people watched the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden in September 2020.
Several new rules, which have already been approved by both candidates, will be introduced to prevent a repeat of the first presidential debate of the 2020 election, which largely veered off track. Microphones will be muted, and the candidates will meet on stage without a live audience for the first time.
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The debate will also feature a pair of commercial breaks during the 90-minute broadcast, bucking a debate tradition in which advertisements were not permitted under the rules established by the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which traditionally governs the debates.
“We’re going to look back at this debate and we’ll see some good and some bad,” says Patrick Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas. “The good will be that the candidates can’t game the system and turn it into a pro wrestling match. The bad part is we’ve commercialized the debates as opposed to serving the public good.”
—With reporting by Nik Popli/Washington