President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to debates, set for June 27 on CNN and September 10 on ABC. 

CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Mark Thompson shared that both Biden and Trump had agreed to his network’s event at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation in New York May 16. That debate will happen in Atlanta. 

CNN reported that Dana Bash, anchor and CNN chief political correspondent, and Jake Tapper, anchor and chief Washington correspondent, will moderate its debate, and David Muir, anchor of World News Tonight, and Linsey Davis, anchor of World News Tonight Sunday, will do so for the ABC News debate.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is not hosting either debate, as it traditionally does. The commission had scheduled debates for September 16, October 1 and October 9. The Biden and Trump camps are dealing directly with the networks.  

The Biden camp wants the debates to happen earlier, The New York Times reported, and wants them conducted in a TV studio with no audience and with microphones that turn off when a speaker’s time limit elapses. 

Trump said on Truth Social he agreed to a Fox News debate October 2, but the Biden camp said the president will take part only in the CNN and ABC News debates. 

ABC News said it will make the September 10 debate available to simulcast on other networks. 

ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News and NewsNation have prepared a joint letter urging President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to participate in televised debates. The letter had not been sent at deadline. 

“We, the undersigned national news organizations, urge the presumptive presidential nominees to publicly commit to participating in general election debates before November’s election,” the letter reads, according to a draft obtained by The New York Times, which said the networks are looking to get more media partners on board.

The Commission on Presidential Debates oversees the debates. Three are scheduled: September 16 in San Marcos, Texas, October 1 in Petersburg, Virginia, and October 9 in Salt Lake City. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not yet committed to appear, amidst concern about Trump following the debate’s rules. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has said he will take part. 

In every election since 1976, there has been at least one live televised presidential debate. 

The letter notes the “rich tradition” debates have played in the American democracy. 

“If there is one thing Americans can agree on, during this polarized time, it is that the stakes of this election are exceptionally high,” the letter reads. “There is simply no substitute for the candidates debating with each other, and before the American people, their visions for the future of the nation.”

Biden and Trump debated twice in 2020. The first one drew over 73 million viewers and the second had 63 million. A third was canceled due to Trump having Covid. 

Fox had the top score in Thursday primetime, with Thursday Night Football giving the network the win. Fox had a 2.1 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 10 share. The other broadcasters had the debate between President Trump and Joe Biden. ABC and NBC were runners-up at 1.6/8, while CBS posted a 1.0/5.

Fox had Giants-Eagles across prime. The network had MLB playoffs the Thursday before. The Thursday before that, Buccaneers-Bears got a 3.0 on Fox. 

ABC had 20/20: Trump vs. Biden at 0.8 and then a 1.9 from 9 to 11, including the debate. 

NBC had a debate preview at 0.8 and a 1.95 from 9 to 11, rounding up to a 2.0. 

CBS had Big Brother up 11% to 1.0 and a 1.1 from 9 to 11. 

Univision got a 0.4/2 and Telemundo a 0.3/2. Univision had Destino 2020 Presenta: El Debate Final across prime. On Telemundo it was Decision 2020 and the debate. 

The CW got a 0.2/1. Supernatural got a 0.3 and The Outpost a 0.1, both shows flat. 

The first presidential debate of the 2020 election drew 73.1 million viewers, down 13% from the first debate four years ago, which drew 84 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

President Trump and former VP Joe Biden squaring off drew a 40.2 household rating, down from the 47.6 rating generated when Trump took on Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Nielsen said the figures include live coverage on 16 broadcast and cable networks. The rating service notes that out-of-home viewing and connected TV are included in the 2020 figures, and could contribute as much as 11% of viewing for televised political events.

Related: Viewership Insights for the First Presidential Debate

Fox News Channel drew 17.1 million viewers, the most of any TV network. It was followed by ABC with 12.1 million, NBC with 9.3 million , CNN with 7.9 million, MSNBC with 7 million, CBS with 6.1 million, Fox with 5.2 million and CNN with 51,000. 

The first presidential debate of the 2020 election is officially in the books and per Vizio's Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million smart TVs, in general, nearly 60% of TVs tuned into the debate. 

Viewership across networks was fairly stable over the course of the first hour, but started to decline around 10:30 p.m. ET as it came to a close, before rising again as people tuned into post-debate analysis.

Related: Debate Commission Vows to Change Format

Looking specifically at CNN, viewership was fairly stable for most of the evening. Tune-in climbed slightly over the course of the first hour before leveling off during the second half. Although viewership dropped for a few minutes after the debate concluded, it spiked right around 11p.m. ET as people turned to CNN’s post-debate analysis — and tune-in at that point was higher than it had been during the debate. 

Even more notable is that although tune-in spiked for other networks’ post-debate commentary after 11 p.m., only CNN and MSNBC saw higher viewership post-debate than what they experienced during the debate itself. 

The highest levels of debate tune-in on CNN occurred between 10:04 p.m. and 10:27 p.m. ET, and again from 10:32 p.m. to 10:35 p.m. During the first period of time, President Trump and Joe Biden were talking about crime, reimagining policing and protests, before shifting to climate change. It was during this time that, when prodded to denounce white supremacy, Trump said proud boys should “stand back and stand by.” The second sustained peak was when they were discussing mail-in voting and voter fraud.

The top local area markets for the debate on CNN by tune-in:

1. Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
2. San Francisco-Oak-San Jose
3. New York
4. Eureka
5. Philadelphia

C-SPAN's Steve Scully has been tapped to moderate the second presidential debate, with Chris Wallace of Fox News hosting the first debate and Kristen Welker of NBC News the third.

That is according to the co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which announced the moderators and locations of the upcoming presidential, and vice presidential, debates.

"This is the first time a C-SPAN person has moderated a presidential debate," said a C-SPAN spokesperson. Scully was the backup for all the 2016 debates.

"It is indeed an honor to be asked to moderate one of the three presidential debates of the 2020 campaign," said Scully of his selection. "It is also an important responsibility. In the final weeks of this historic campaign, this unique 'town hall' format will allow the American people to ask questions directly to the debate participants - the candidates vying for our nation's highest office. The questions will come from undecided voters selected by the Gallup Organization and from social media. My focus is to effectively facilitate this important conversation between voters and the candidates."

All the debates will air at 9-10:30 p.m. ET without commercials.

Scully, who is senior executive producer and political editor for C-SPAN Networks, will moderate the Oct. 15 debate, which is being held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

The debate will be a town meeting format, with questions posed from South Floridians, with Scully facilitating further discussion after the candidates each have two minutes to respond to the questions from uncommitted voters.

Wallace will host the first presidential debate on Sept. 29 from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in "Cleveland. The debate will be divided into six segments of about 15 minutes apiece, each on a different major topic selected by Wallace and announced at least a week prior to the event. Wallace will ask the questions and candidates will have two minutes to respond. Wallace will use the remaining time in each segment for "a deeper discussion."

Welker is hosting the third debate Oct. 22 from Belmont University in Nashville. The format will be the same as the first debate.

There will be a single vice presidential debate Oct. 7 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and moderated by Susan Page of USA Today. The format will be nine segments of about 10 minutes each with each candidate getting two minutes to respond.

“We are grateful to these experienced journalists, who will help ensure that the general election presidential debates continue to serve their unique educational purpose of helping the public learn about the candidates," said co-chairs Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., Dorothy S. Ridings and Kenneth Wollack.