Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton face off during the first presidential debate. (Getty)
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are about to go head-to-head for the second time in a presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. How long will the debate last? And will it be presented without any commercials?
Although the format of the second presidential debate is different from the first one, it’s the same length, lasting from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, according to the Commission on Presidential Debates. There’s a good chance the debate will go a bit over the scheduled 90 minutes, but it’s unlikely to end much later than 10:40 p.m.
You’ll want to make sure to prepare snacks and drinks before the debate starts, too, because just like last time, the debate will run without any commercial breaks whatsoever. It will be 90 completely uninterrupted minutes.
The second presidential debate takes the form of a town hall, whereas the first debate just involved Clinton, Trump and moderator Lester Holt. Roughly half of the night’s questions will come from undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization, according to the CPD. This creates a much different dynamic than last time around, as now the candidates have to talk to voters face to face rather than just talking in generalities among one another.
The other half of the debate’s questions will come from moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. There will be a combination of questions written by Cooper and Raddatz themselves, as well as questions submitted from voters via the internet. It’s unclear how exactly Cooper and Raddatz will incorporate these online questions.
After each question, the candidates have two minutes to respond, and an additional minute will consist of followups from the moderator.
The second presidential debate will air on all major networks including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and C-SPAN. It will also be streaming on social media. The third and final presidential debate is in two weeks, on October 19th at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.