Republican presidential candidates take the stage during the CNBC Republican presidential debate. | AP Photo Debate Night Everything you need to know about Tuesday's Republican debate

When is the next Republican presidential debate?

The fourth Republican presidential debate will be Tuesday, Nov. 10, live from the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The venue has a loaded history: On Oct. 14, 1912, candidate Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin outside a Milwaukee hotel. Instead of heading to the hospital, he continued to the Milwaukee Auditorium (now the Milwaukee Theatre) to deliver a 90-minute campaign speech. In front of a horrified audience and with the bullet lodged in his rib, he pulled a bloodied 50-page speech with bullet holes in it from his coat pocket and declared, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.”

When and how long is the debate?

The prime-time debate will last two hours and begins at 9 Eastern time. There are a few changes to the format: Candidates will not make opening statements, but they will have more time to make arguments. For an initial answer to a question, they get 90 seconds, in addition to 60 seconds for rebuttals. There will be short closing statements at the end of the debate.


How can I watch the debate?

It will air on Fox Business Network and be streamed for free on foxbusiness.com. No cable subscription is necessary. To capitalize on the ratings surges from earlier debates, FBN is also widening access to the channel for its pay-TV partners such as DirecTV. This will allow viewers who normally can’t access the network a chance to tune into the debate.

Does this debate have a theme?

This debate will pay attention to the same topics as the previous debate: jobs, taxes, the “general health of the economy,” and international issues.

What about the furor over the last Republican debate?

So far, not much has come of the campaigns’ meeting to iron out tension over the last debate and future formatting. Even after labeling the previous debate a “disaster,” the Republican National Committee has held firm in its commitment to oversee the schedule. Jeb Bush’s idea of adding a Telemundo debate was met with dismissiveness, and the Ben Carson campaign’s idea of using social media companies for broadcasting rights has not borne results. The candidates have not been able to unify behind a plan to reorganize the structure of the debates.

Who will participate?

The qualifications for this debate have altered the field of top candidates, irritating those eliminated from the main stage and those already part of the second-tier group. Because they failed to meet the 2.5 percent polling cutoff, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee have been knocked down to the 7 p.m. debate, and Lindsey Graham and George Pataki have been eliminated from both stages. All of this changes the look of the main draw, with just eight candidates fielding questions.

Who will participate in the 7 p.m. debate?

A field of four will debate for an hour. After Huckabee and Christie take their places at new lecterns, two of the usual suspects will join them: Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum.

How did Fox Business Network decide who will be in the debate?

For the main draw, Fox Business Network used just four recent polls by Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily and Quinnipiac and gave a spot to anyone with an average of at least 2.5 percent. The 7 p.m. debate includes four candidates polling at least 1 percent in a single poll.

Will questions about the veracity of some pieces of Ben Carson’s personal story affect the debate?

Now that Carson has earned a shared poll-leader status with Donald Trump, investigations into his biography are more contentious. A POLITICO report on Friday that debunked Carson’s claim that West Point offered him a scholarship followed suspicions of another possible invention: the seminal incident in which he tried to stab a friend as a teenager. If not questioned on the news by the moderators, Trump will almost surely broach the subject himself.

Where will they stand on stage?

Trump is still the highest-polling candidate and will stand center-stage for the debate, though, as with the last debate, an even number of candidates means Carson will also appear in the center. To Trump’s right will be Marco Rubio, Bush and John Kasich. To Carson’s left will be Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul.

Who will moderate the debate?

There will be three moderators: FBN anchors Maria Bartiromo and Neil Cavuto and Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker. Before Cavuto was a Fox News staple (he hosts a show every afternoon at 4 p.m.), he interned in Jimmy Carter’s White House.

How will libertarians react to the debate?

That is apparently a question Fox Business Network is interested in, even with Paul limping through primary season. John Stossel will host a special edition of “Stossel” on FBN at midnight with a studio full of libertarians reacting to the debate.

When is the fifth Republican debate?

The fifth debate is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 15 in Las Vegas — the last Republican debate of the calendar year. It will be hosted by CNN and Salem Radio, meaning the ubiquitous Hugh Hewitt will return again to grill Republicans on the newest campaign controversies. Wolf Blitzer will moderate.

When is the next Democratic debate?

The next Democratic debate will be in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, Nov. 14. It will be hosted by CBS News, KCCI-TV and the Des Moines Register at Drake University and is the only Iowa-based debate before the Feb. 1 caucuses.