Why is there no audience for the presidential debate?
The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle features several unprecedented components.
Most notably, the CNN-hosted debate is the first since the inaugural presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960 without a live audience.
The campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed upon this new rule.
Steve Fein, a professor of psychology at Williams College in Massachusetts, that the choice to exclude a live audience is "rational," adding that he believes American voters will benefit.
“[It] will reduce significantly the chances that the focus of the debate will be not on what is actually said, but on all this stuff around it — the reaction of the audience and playing to the audience,” he said. “I think that changes what the candidates are likely to do.
“It also changes what the audience at home takes away from the debate, what they remember, what plays the news the next day – all based on the audience reaction. Because the audience reaction may or may not be valid.”
Ultimately, the hope is that the debate remains substantive and highlights each candidate's position on the issues and their legislative remedies rather than hollow attacks that prompt cheers or jeers.
The lack of an audience is just one of a handful of interesting wrinkles in this debate. This is the earliest presidential debate in history, the first debate between a sitting president and a former president, and the first debate since 1988 that isn’t sponsored by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates. Non-speaking candidates will also be mic-muted and the broadcast will include two commercial breaks.