World
Taking presidential debates out of commission's hands virtually guarantees fewer viewers
NEW YORK (AP) — The planned presidential debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that were swiftly organized this week are a coup for CNN and ABC News — but a virtual guarantee they’ll be among the least-watched general election contests ever.
The two campaigns skirted the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized the events for 36 years with the goal of getting them before as many eyes as possible.
ABC, which has assigned David Muir and Linsey Davis as moderators for a debate scheduled for Sept. 10, has said it will make it available for simulcast on any U.S. television network or streaming service that wants it. CNN had not said by early Friday whether it will do the same for its debate, set for June 27 with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash as questioners.
A debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and whomever former President Trump chooses as his running mate is expected to air this summer on CBS.
Each of the two debates between Biden and Trump in 2020 were carried on at least 16 networks, according to the Nielsen company. The first was seen by 73.1 million viewers, the second by 63 million.
Debates prior to a party’s nominating process, which Trump skipped this year, are usually organized and broadcast by individual media organizations. The tradition has been different for those organized by the commission during general election campaigns, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and member of a group of experts Annenberg organized a decade ago that explored ways to increase viewership.
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“It’s the public’s debate,” Jamieson said.
For CNN leaders, there’s a great temptation to keep it for themselves. It would likely be the most-watched event ever on a network that is struggling in ratings. CNN’s chief executive, Mark Thompson, made a point in tying the debate to the brand on Wednesday when he announced the agreement to hold it during a sales presentation to advertisers in New York.
“When people have something important to say,” Thompson said, “they say it on CNN.”
CNN said Wednesday the debate would also air live on its international and Spanish-speaking networks, and stream on CNN Max and CNN.com.
The pool of people available to watch on CNN’s main television network is dwindling due to cord-cutting of cable and satellite services. CNN was available in 71% of American homes with television in May 2020; this month it’s just under 54%, Nielsen said.
Keeping the debate on CNN alone would run up against stout criticism that it’s not the public-spirited thing to do, something ABC moved quickly to avoid.
Political polarization that has spread to the media would also likely cut into viewership if the event was not shared, Jamieson said. Would Fox News viewers, after years of hearing CNN criticized by some of their favorite politicians and media figures, turn to CNN for a debate or skip it entirely?
It’s still not certain how many other networks will carry the debates even with the opportunity. Only PBS has said that it would; other networks have yet to give a public commitment.
Some of those executives would have to swallow hard to carry another network’s personalities on their air, with the risk some of their regular viewers might like them and switch allegiances. Pressure to carry the debates for public service reasons would be intense, though.
Despite worries about how many people will watch, Jamieson said there’s some irony in that there’s a lot to like about the proposed ground rules for the event. So far, the plans are to hold them in television studios without an audience.
That’s something the Annenberg group had proposed a decade ago, saying an audience that reacts to what the candidates are saying is often a distraction, and that audience is usually packed with partisans on both sides.
If the two campaigns agree to rules where one candidate’s microphone would be shut off while his opponent answers a question, it would go a long way to solving what has been a more frequent problem recently with politicians interrupting and talking over an opponent, she said.
“If someone had told me that there was going to be some good news about political discourse this year, I would have told them they were delusional,” she said.
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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.
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Star of the hit Netflix show “Jewish Matchmaking,” Cindy Seni isn’t single anymore, but still talks to renowned matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom and lives in Israel.
From serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during COVID to living in Jerusalem through Oct. 7 and now the launch of Operation Rising Lion, Seni has seen a slew of historic events firsthand.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Seni told Fox News Digital. “It feels like it’s a never-ending wound that we just keep trying to patch up and then it gets reopened again and it’s very, very difficult.”
Israel’s air defense targets Iranian missiles in the sky of Tel Aviv in Israel on June 16, 2025. (MATAN GOLAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
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Since the operation in Iran began, Israel has directed civilians to stay in bomb shelters or protected spaces for longer periods of time. Seni says it can be “anxiety-inducing” as one never knows how long the shelter-in-place order will last.
“It’s a question sometimes of an entire night or a few hours,” she said. “And thank God I have a safe room in my apartment, but a lot of people don’t, so they have to run and literally go out on the street at night in the middle with their kids and that’s very stressful.”
While she said that life in Israel right now is anxiety-inducing and scary, Seni also spoke about the resilience of the Israeli people, something she admires about the culture. Seni told Fox News Digital that people in Israel are living their lives not because they aren’t afraid or stressed, but rather in spite of that because they don’t have a choice. As Seni said, “they can’t stop.”
One resilient Israeli who has had a major impact on Seni’s life amid the chaos of war and conflict is her husband, Eldad Cohen.
“He’s a very, very resilient Israeli. He’s been through a lot of things,” she said. “He was injured as well in the army, and he has his own kind of, you grew up here during the Second Intifada in Jerusalem, and so he has this own resilience that really grounds me.”
“Jewish Matchmaking” star Cindy Seni and her now-husband Eldad Cohen at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. (@IsraelWithCindy/Instagram)
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Seni’s other love is spreading joy online through her Instagram account, “Israel with Cindy,” where she posts skits, photos and personal stories.
“So, ‘Israel with Cindy’ was really created as a way to spread joy within the community —the Jewish community — and it kind of really grew from there,” Seni said. “When situations like these happen, and the same thing with October 7th, I was faced with an extreme amount of hatred or just antisemitism. And I decided that my platform was going to be used in times of need to show antisemitism and expose hatred and trying to really find peace and a solution in the long-term. Humanizing Israelis, humanizing Jews, which I think is often lost in today’s society, sometimes in this polarized world.”
Rescue personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Rishon LeZion, Israel, June 14, 2025. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun )
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that as of Wednesday 24 people had been killed and more than 800 injured in Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Additionally, 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes.
While the numbers may be daunting, Seni says she has faith in the Israeli security forces and in God.
“I’m a believer in God, so, I believe that we have divine protection. I think that, God willing, everything will be okay.”
While last-minute preparations for US billionaire Jeff Bezos’ lavish Venice wedding next week should be under way, protesters are drawing up plans in parallel to block streets and waterways and send a message: the Amazon founder is not welcome in their city.
For some Venetians, the wedding of Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist, which is rumoured to be costing some €10 million, represents the sell-off of their city to the highest bidder – and they are mobilising against it.
Marta Sottoriva, an organiser of the No Space for Bezos campaign, told Euronews that activists are demonstrating against Bezos’ wedding because of what it represents for the city.
“We are not protesting the wedding per se, but a vision of Venice … as a city that people come and consume,” Sottoriva said.
The billionaire is also a “symbol for a type of wealth built on the exploitation of the many”, citing Amazon’s resistance to unionisation, Sottoriva said, while noting his presence at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Sottoriva argued the city increasingly caters to tourists and large-scale events rather than its residents, resulting in “depopulation and the closure of many services and spaces for locals”. In some ways, the problem of overtourism and the billionaire’s luxury event “represent the same vision of the city as a commodity”, she said.
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Scant details have been made official about the wedding, but some 200 guests are expected to attend and are said to have booked the city’s most expensive hotels, while the Amazon founder will be travelling with his yachts.
While the campaign does not expect to stop the wedding, it hopes to throw a spanner in the works. The activists have already begun to take a stand, most notably by hanging a banner daubed with Bezos’ name crossed out on the bell tower of San Giorgio Basilica on Thursday, while posters advertising their actions are plastered around the city.
The group is planning its main demonstration for 28 June. “We will create some inconvenience and delays and make the protest visible,” Sottoriva said, adding that the peaceful protests will feature people blocking roads, clogging up canals on boats and kayaks and jumping into the water.
She hopes hundreds will come out across Venice. “We’ll also have people playing music – it’s going to be a party for the city, too.”
It is not the first time Bezos’s presence has courted controversy in Europe: in 2022, Rotterdam faced criticism for considering dismantling its iconic De Hef Bridge so that his yacht could pass, despite the city council’s promise not to disturb the monument after it was restored five years prior.
Venice has become a poster child for the impacts of overtourism, with the number of visitors ballooning in recent decades, with some 30 million visiting the small city each year.
Just 51,000 locals reside in the historic centre, with around 250,000 more living on Venice’s mainland. Some Venetians complain that they have been pushed out of their neighbourhoods by rising costs and that tourism is straining the city’s infrastructure and diluting Venice’s unique character.
The city has introduced a tourist tax, with a daily fee for visitors, which its mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said aims to help the city to dampen down massive influxes of travellers, though critics say it has failed to dissuade tourists from coming in droves.
But some see the wedding as an opportunity, with some business owners telling Italian media that they oppose the protests and that events like Bezos’ wedding bring in custom.
The wedding has also been wholeheartedly embraced by the mayor, with Brugnaro saying he felt “honoured” that Bezos had picked Venice. “We are very proud,’’ he told the AP last week, adding that he hoped he would get the chance to meet the billionaire.
“I don’t know if I will have time, or if he will, to meet and shake hands, but it’s an honour that they chose Venice. Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage.’’
Unsurprisingly, Sottoriva holds a contrasting view. “We don’t need Bezos. We need houses, decent wages, and a sustainable future.”
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