NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FOX Business Network (FBN) has announced that Anchor/Managing Editor of Business News, Neil Cavuto and Anchor/Global Markets Editor, Maria Bartiromo, along with anchors Trish Regan and Sandra Smith will reprise their moderating roles for the first Republican presidential primary debates of 2016. The RNC sanctioned debates will take place on Thursday, January 14th at 6PM and 9PM/ET at the North Charleston Coliseum and Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, two days following President Obama’s final State of the Union address. The candidates that qualify for each debate will be announced on FBN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight on Monday, January 11th at 7PM/ET.
Cavuto and Bartiromo will once again serve as the moderators for the primetime debate, which will begin at 9PM/ET. This debate will feature candidates that place in the top six nationally, based on an average of the five most recent national polls; or place in the top five in Iowa, based on an average of the five most recent Iowa state polls; or place in the top five in New Hampshire, based on an average of the five most recent New Hampshire state polls. All polling recognized by FOX News must be conducted and released prior to Monday, January 11th at 6PM/ET. Such polling will be conducted by major nationally and state recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques (i.e., live interviewers, random digit-dial sampling techniques and include both landlines and cell phones).
The remaining candidates will be invited to participate in an earlier debate, moderated by Regan and Smith, which will start at 6PM/ET. In order to qualify for the first debate, candidates must register at least one percent in ONE of the five most recent national polls, adhering to the same aforementioned polling standards.
On the evening of the debate, Lou Dobbs will also host a special one hour program at 5PM/ET to highlight the upcoming undercard and return closer to 8PM/ET to recap the earlier debate, and preview the primetime showdown. Following the success of the network’s inaugural primetime Republican debate in November, which set a ratings record with 13.5 million viewers, FBN will follow a similar format for these debates, focusing on economic, domestic and international policy issues.
FOX Business Network (FBN) is a financial news channel delivering real-time information across all platforms that impact both Main Street and Wall Street. Headquartered in New York—the business capital of the world—FBN launched in October 2007 and is available in more than 80 million homes in major markets across the United States. Owned by 21st Century Fox, the network has bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and London. On the web at www.foxbusiness.com.
