CBS will still air Democratic Debate following Paris attack, but will change subject matter
It is unfortunate in some ways that politics, entertainment, and television ratings have become almost symbiotic, but that is the way it is now. Just look for evidence at the way that certain GOP candidates attempted to control the recent CNBC debate, and the criticism of the moderators that came after that was a big part of the story.
So with all of this in mind, there is obviously a lot of attention already being given to the upcoming Democratic Debate that is coming up on CBS Saturday. The field of candidates is significantly smaller with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders being the only candidates generating much attention from the public, and the ratings will likely be smaller. Yet, there is already intense attention on what will take place.
While the campaign was going strong early Friday, everything changed following the brutal and horrible attack in Paris. Candidates changed from arguing points to offering up condolences, and while it has been confirmed that the Debate is taking place, Steve Capus (CBS News Executive Editor) made it clear that there will be many questions that will change in the aftermath of what happened in France. We anticipate foreign policy to be more of a talking point, but we also do not expect it to be the main focus of the evening.
All we can really hope for from a human perspective is that by the time the debate comes on the air Saturday, some of the violence and the killings will have subsided. Television has already been impacted in America in many ways; NBC and ABC have put special coverage of the attacks into primetime, and HBO has already canceled with U2 a concert in Paris set for Saturday.
As we have said, our thoughts and well-wishes are with the people in Paris during this extremely trying time.