How Long is the Third Presidential Debate Tonight?

2016 Presidential Debate, second presidential debate, presidential debate st. louis

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. (Getty)

The third and final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will take place at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas tonight. How long will the event last, and will there be any commercial interruptions?

Like the first two presidential debates, Wednesday’s event will last for 90 minutes, running from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time. There will not be any commercial interruptions during that time.

The second presidential debate’s format was a town hall, but this time around, the format is reverting back to how it was during the first debate back in September. Trump and Clinton will be standing at podiums and will be asked questions by the moderator, Chris Wallace. According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, there will be six segments, each one lasting approximately 15 minutes. When asked a question, candidates have two minutes to answer, and the remaining time will be spent on followups from the moderator or a discussion between candidates.

The debate takes place just less than three weeks ahead of election day. Historically, this final debate tends to be the least important, with the fewest number of viewers tuning in. In 2012, for instance, 67 million people watched the first debate, while 59 million watched the final debate, according to the LA Times. This year, we’ve already seen a significant dropoff between the first and second debate, with the first being seen by 84 million people and the second being seen by 66 million.

The topics for the third debate will be immigration, entitlements and debt, the Supreme Court, the economy, foreign policy, and each candidate’s fitness to serve as president, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. This will be the first time Donald Trump will answer press questions since nine different women came forward to accuse him of sexual assault. It will also Hillary Clinton’s first time taking questions since WikiLeaks released dozens of emails and Wall Street speeches that show Clinton speaking much differently in public speeches than she did in private, and with one email showing a potential quid pro quo between the state department and the FBI.

Wednesday’s debate will be broadcast on all major news networks including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NBC, CBS, and C-SPAN. For those who don’t have a television, it will also be streaming live on YouTube and Twitter.


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