How America’s presidential debates are changing this year

“WE AIN’T DEADTVCPDCPDCPD yet,” Frank Fahrenkopf insisted last month on “The Daily Show”, an American programme. Jon Stewart, the host, looked sceptical. Mr Fahrenkopf leads the Commission on Presidential Debates (), a non-partisan body whose sole purpose is to organise match-ups every four years. This year his group will have nothing to do with them. In May, after signalling that he might not participate at all, Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to debate him—on Mr Biden’s terms. Mr Trump agreed. The presidential candidates will face off twice. Unusually, news networks, rather than the , will host the encounters. They will take place months earlier than they normally would. The first is . How will these new arrangements change presidential debates?The was founded in 1987 to “institutionalise” the debates and mediate between rival campaigns. At the time, televised showdowns were relatively new. The first, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, took place in 1960. But candidates did not debate again for 16 years. Incumbents tended to consider the practice degrading.