Many Americans will be introduced to NewsNation tonight, as the relatively new Nexstar-owned cable news network is hosting and broadcasting the fourth Republican presidential primary debate of the 2024 cycle (much to the consternation of Newsmax).
The channel’s evening news anchor Elizabeth Vargas will serve as one of the moderators, joined by longtime TV news personality-turned-podcast host Megyn Kelly, and Washington Free Beacon EIC Eliana Johnson.
Four candidates are poised to participate in tonight’s festivities, being held at The University of Alabama’s Frank Moody Center: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Haley has been gaining ground on second-place DeSantis in recent weeks. However, Florida’s governor got some debate reps in last week during a live, televised Fox News event with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He should be ready to go and hopes to move his campaign in a positive direction.
The party primary frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, is not expected to participate in this debate, mirroring his strategy for the previous three.
Despite Trump’s expected absence, the folks at NewsNation are excited to produce Wednesday night’s event and introduce the country to their cable news offering that ideologically lies somewhere in between CNN and Fox News.
We spoke with NewsNation’s svp of news and politics Cherie Grzech–a former Fox News exec who joined NewsNation in June 2021–by phone last week. She told us what we expect from the network’s first-ever debate, how her former colleague Megyn Kelly landed the co-moderator gig, and what makes a compelling televised debate more generally.
*This interview is lightly edited for clarity purposes:
TVNewser: As someone with a lot of experience producing special events from your time back at Fox, what in your mind makes a compelling televised presidential debate?
Grzech: I think the best thing about debates is they’re spontaneous, and you don’t really know what’s going to happen. It’s a reaction, and you can prepare for everything prior to the debate, but once the candidates get up there, it’s their debate. It’s what they’re doing. They bring something different to the table every single time. So, I think what makes it a compelling debate is what makes good television in general – informing the viewer and capturing the best moments of happened between the candidates on that stage.
This is the fourth Republican primary debate of this election cycle. How will this debate look and feel different from the previous three that we’ve seen?
I think it’s great that legacy networks like Fox News and NBC did the first debates, but this is huge for us. It’s a massive coup for NewsNation.
What you’re gonna see on that stage is [NewsNation anchor] Elizabeth Vargas, a veteran journalist, along with Megyn Kelly, who many folks know and want to see back on the debate stage, and then a newcomer Eliana Johnson. I think bringing those three moderators together is very compelling, and certainly a great strength of women on the moderating desk.
In addition, this venue is the Frank Moody Music Building, and it has a huge organ in the front of the stage, which we’re going to capitalize on. It’s a quaint theater, which just under 1,000 seats in it. So, it’s an intimate setting. Alabama is a state that has a lot of energy around it, and the University of Alabama campus has a lot of energy around it. So, I think it will be a great debate.
Megyn Kelly doesn’t work for NewsNation, but you two were colleagues for years at Fox. How did she end up as a co-moderator for this debate, and what does she bring to the debate stage that is different from other news personalities?
That is part of the partnership with the Republican National Committee. The RNC picks with partners are going to work together and then each partner gets a choice of the moderator. So that would come from Sirius XM Radio.
I certainly was blessed and amazed that we were going to work together again. Megyn’s dynamic. She brings something to the debate stage that I think many people want to watch, and I think she’s very good at what she does. I also think that with Elizabeth Vargas from NewsNation, you bring all the strengths that you have to that moderating desk.
I think it’s going to be dynamic, I think it’s going to be energized, and at the same time, I think we’re all dedicated to knowing that this debate is really not about us. It’s about the candidates and where they stand in the spectrum at this point in the campaign.
Elizabeth Vargas, NewsNation’s representative, is the sole nonpartisan journalist on stage, and this is her first presidential primary debate. What should we expect from Elizabeth, and what are some words of wisdom that you’ve imparted on her as she embarks on this new challenge?
She’s a veteran journalist, and she’s covered the campaign and news for a long time in her career. She has a ton of experience that she brings to the moderating desk. I think as far as what she brings to the debate is what NewsNation brings to the debate. We’re a network that is based off the facts, and we’re looking to make the viewer more informed. I think the debate capitalizes on what the mission of the network is. This is democracy at its best, and I think asking the questions and informing the viewer is really what she’s going to go after. She’s ready and on top of the news every night on her own program, Vargas Reports. I think she’s really excited about it.
What are some of the top issues for Republican voters that Megyn, Elizabeth and Eliana plan to raise during the debate?
We’re less than a week out, but certainly, the news cycle changes. There are a lot of pivotal topics that always resonate in the landscape of politics, which are foreign policy, the economy, and “day-of” news. I think digging in and seeing where the candidates differ on the issues is really our job; figuring out a way to allow the voter to know what is different about each candidate. So that’s what we’re going to try to get at, is to figure out what their differences are, and in that way, how do people differ on who they vote for based on those issues.
When the clock strikes 11 p.m. ET, what do you hope that the viewing audience—whether it be the GOP primary voter, or whomever else is watching—has taken away from this event on NewsNation?
Think it’s an amazing opportunity for us. We have a lot of folks in America who haven’t experienced or seen NewsNation yet. My hope is that when they come to us, they think about coming back. I think it’s an opportunity for those Americans who may not know what we do or what we’re about to sample us and to get a better idea and hope they come back to the product.
We think that we’re offering something that the American public is looking for, and I think they’ll see it in that debate on December 6.