With only five candidates on stage Tuesday night, the presidential candidates should have plenty of time to speak — it just might not be equal time.
During the two-hour-long debate, each candidate has one minute to answer a direct question. If the candidate is brought up in someone else's answer, he or she will get thirty seconds for rebuttal.
"You'll likely see more direct questioning of each individual candidate," said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.
That questioning is coming from Anderson Cooper, assisted by his CNN colleagues Dana Bash and Juan Carlos Lopez. Cooper has discretion to allow more time for an answer, and has said he's not afraid to go after any statements that don't ring true. In an interview with the New York Times, Cooper said, "I believe if somebody says something that is factually incorrect, it's a good thing to point out what the record shows."
NPR has its stopwatch out tonight, as it did for the last debate, during which Trump spoke the longest by far.
Here is how much air time each candidate got as of the first commercial break:
Sanders: 12 min 15 sec
Clinton: 11 min 41 sec
O'Malley: 8 min 23 sec
Webb: 7 min 52 sec
Chafee: 4 min 36 sec
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