Tonight’s Republican Presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa promises all the drama of candidates jockeying for position with the added value of a Donald Trump no-show.
We spoke to some of the stations in the Iowa city to get an idea what they were planning to do now that the circus is in town.
ABC affiliate WOI
WOI news director April Samp told TVSpy, “We continue to cover the caucuses and debates like we have for the past 18 months. We focus on real Iowans and the issues. For debates we usually take the ‘highlights’ off a feed and put them into context by having a live interview with our Local 5 political expert Dr. Steffen Schmidt. We have a partnership with Dr. Schmidt fantastic and world-known political analyst from Iowa State. He gives us his take on what was said in the debates and puts it into context for our viewers.”
Samp said most networks restrict access to the debates and want payment for live shot locations. “This particular debate you can’t even go live from the spin room,” said Stamp. “So we use our resources in the way we feel best serves the viewers.”
She added there’s a post-debate forecast for a snowstorm, possibly stranding some journalists in Iowa for another day.
NBC affiliate WHO and Fox affiliate KDSM.
Dave Price, the political director for both stations, told TVSpy the station is covering some of the pre-rallies and the debate. He also said the station had a crew covering the Trump alternative event.
We have an email out to Dave Busiek at CBS affiliate KCCI. We’ll update this post when we hear back.