A month after the last Republicans debate, the presidential candidates will have another round of talks next week. This time, CNN will sponsor the event, which will take place in Las Vegas on December 15. Moreover, the cable channel will live stream it free.
Just like in previous debates, there will be an undercard event for other candidates that have low scores in polls. While the main event features certain candidates like Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Donald Trump-- who announced to stay way in the event unless the network pay him $ 5 million to appear.
For the primary debate, candidates must garnered at least 3.5 percent support nationally or 4 percent in either Iowa or New Hampshire. These major polls should be conducted from Oct. 29 to Dec. 13.
On other hand, the second tier debate features candidates that have 1 percent support on any four qualifying polls done nationally or in either of the two states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
In a report from Bloomberg, it says Kentucky Senator Rand Paul will almost certainly fail to qualify for the primary event. The analysis came from data gathered by Bloomberg.
Paul did not have enough votes on all three thresholds, but he got a qualifying 3.5 percent support in Iowa. If only one additional poll is released in each category by Sunday, Paul would have to earn an ambitious 6 percent in Iowa, 8 percent in New Hampshire or 10.5 percent nationally to stand on debate's main stage.
Given candidates' current positions and the likely pace of new polls, the only other contender expected to move from undercard to main event is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. In recent New Hampshire polls, she garnered a strong 6.8 percent average.
Meanwhile, the latest GOP debate comes as the Republican contest remains deeply unsettled, and party members openly said they have to find ways on how to halt Donald Trump. However, the business tycoon could draw viewers after his controversial statements about Muslim and terrorism.
The next week's debate will be the second time that CNN will be showing a GOP debate for free. The TV network said they believe streaming the debate is a matter of public interest, so showing it for free is a showcase for the industry's "TV everywhere" offerings.
In the past debates, sponsored byFox News and MSNBC, viewers have to pay for a TV password to watch.
As for the streaming signal, the network assures its audience that they will get the best streaming service.
"There's an art to scale up these events in a meaningful way. You want to give a pristine signal, and so you create redundancies, and optimize for every platform," Allex Wellem, Chief Product Officer of CNN, said in a published statement in Fortune.
