The NBC News/National Journal GOP primary debate–first announced back in April–will be broadcast on NBC in primetime. The organizations have announced that the debate will be held Monday, January 23, one week before the Florida primary. “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams will moderate.
Williams’ new primetime magazine “Rock Center” is slated to run Mondays in primetime–at least until sometime in mid season–so it appears as though the debate will likely take place at least in part during that time period.
With the cable news channels garnering boffo ratings with their debate coverage, the broadcast networks have been slating debates of their own. Both NBC and ABC will televise a primetime debate of its own on the Saturday before the New Hampshire primary, while NBC will host a debate the next day in the timeslot normally held by “Meet the Press.”
As NBC was quick to note, the Florida debate is the first debate to be televised on a broadcast network during the week–when most people actually watch television.