On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015

Fox News changes plans for GOP forum

The Fox News Republican presidential forum on Aug. 6 — also known as the midday consolation event for GOP candidates who fail to make the channel's prime-time debate — is being moved to 5 p.m. and shortened to one hour, the On Media blog has learned.

Fox News, the sponsor of the inaugural Republican primary debate in Cleveland, has limited inclusion to candidates who finish in the top 10 in an average of national polls. In June, it announced that the remaining candidates would participate in a 90-minute forum at 1 p.m., eight hours before the main event.

The move to 5 p.m. will give the second-tier candidates a far greater audience than they would have had at midday — the channel's 5 p.m. ratings are nearly double the daytime average — and will allow Fox News to transition directly from the forum into its pre-debate coverage.

The decision to shorten the forum to one hour will be less celebrated by candidates who already feel spurned by the network's cap. However, the forum is likely to include about half as many participants as the prime-time debate, providing each candidate with roughly equal time.

Fox News still has yet to reveal the specific polls it will consider when determining inclusion in the debates. The network has said that candidates must place "in the top 10 of an average of the five most recent national polls, as recognized by Fox News leading up to August 4th at 5 PM/ET," and that the polls "must be conducted by major, nationally recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques."

If the debate were held tomorrow, such criteria would likely see Rick Santorum, John Kasich, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham and George Pataki relegated to the 5 p.m. forum.