Following FNC’s decision to cancel the GOP debate which had been set for Monday night, CNN is planning 3 hours of programming with all 5 candidates.
Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer will host a 3-hour prime time special Monday night interviewing Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Hillary Clinton from CNN Election Center in Washington, D.C. Bernie Sanders will be interviewed from the campaign trail.
On Wednesday, Trump said he wouldn’t be able to participate in the Salt Lake City debate because he’s speaking to the AIPAC conference in Washington Monday. Clinton, Cruz and Kasich are also speaking at AIPAC. So CNN was able to grab interviews with them all, and will air them Monday night ahead of the primaries in Utah, Arizona and Idaho on Tuesday.
The event will air from 8-11 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espanol, and will be live-streamed as well. CNN hasn’t said which anchor will interview which candidate.
Doing some quick math, if CNN uses all commercial breaks over the three hours, that will leave about 26 minutes for each of the 5 candidates.
Fox News’s Bret Baier will also be interviewing Cruz and Kasich while they’re in Washington for his show at 6 p.m., Cruz will also be on with Megyn Kelly at 9 p.m., and Sean Hannity is devoting his 10 p.m. hour Monday to an interview with Trump.