Getty February 25 Democratic Debate
Tonight is the tenth Democratic debate, just before the South Carolina primary and following Bernie Sanders’ big win. So just how long is the Democratic debate tonight? It’s scheduled to be two hours and 15 minutes in length, but it could go longer. Read on for more details, and see an embedded video for watching the debate live right here later tonight.
The Debate Is Scheduled to Last Two Hours & 15 Minutes, But the Debate Ended 10 Minutes Early
Tonight’s Democratic debate begins at 8 p.m. Eastern and is scheduled to end at 10:15 p.m. Eastern. (That’s 7-9:15 p.m. Central, 6-8:15 p.m. Mountain, and 5-7:15 p.m. Pacific.) But there’s a chance it could go on a little longer, so don’t be surprised if it does. In the past, some two-hour debates have already gone over the estimated time during this campaign cycle. Instead, the debate actually ended about 10 minutes early.
According to the TV Guide listing, the CBS broadcast is called “CBS News Democratic Primary Debate” and it runs from 8 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. Eastern. (It’s worth noting that TV Guide currently lists the Pacific time zone as having the debate at 7 and Mountain time as being at 8, but these would not be live broadcasts if they were at those times. Election Central lists the start time as 5 p.m. Pacific and 6 p.m. Mountain, in line with the Eastern and Central start times. You might want to check your local cable service if you’re in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, just to be sure.)
Interestingly, they actually ended the debate 10 minutes early tonight.
After the debate, CBS has a post-debate show scheduled for 45 minutes called CBS News: The Spin Room on local CBS affiliate channels. Then local programming is scheduled for 35 minutes after that. So there’s a little time built in if the debate goes over two hours and 15 minutes.
If you’re still looking for a way to watch the debate tonight, you can view it live in the embedded video below.
About Tonight’s Debate
The debate is being co-hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, and it is taking place in Charleston, South Carolina.
The candidates for tonight are:
- Joe Biden, former Vice President
- Mike Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City
- Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana
- Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota senator
- Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator
- Tom Steyer, businessman
- Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator
Tom Steyer is an addition we didn’t see in last week’s debate. He just qualified through polling.
Moderators for the debate include Norah O’Donnell, Gayle King, Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett, and Bill Whitaker.
Candidates qualified if they met a polling threshold or obtained at least one pledged delegate in a caucus or primary. The donation requirement for the debate was dropped.
This is the last debate before both the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday, when 15 states will host their primaries including Texas and California. This is also the first debate since Bernie Sanders’ begin win in Nevada, after he also won New Hampshire and Iowa.
We may also see some heated exchanges involving Mike Bloomberg again, and it will be interesting to see how fellow billionaire Tom Steyer weighs in on all of that.
There will likely be a lot of things to discuss tonight.
READ NEXT: Bloomberg’s Betting Odds Drop Sharply During Democratic Debate