Debates and commercial breaks: A brief history

The rival camps of President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spent the hours before their first general-election debate sparring over the issue of commercial breaks.

“Biden’s handlers have asked for multiple breaks during the debate, which President Trump doesn’t need, so we have rejected that request,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. 

But Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, denied in a call with reporters that the Biden camp had ever made such a request.

The reality was that commercial breaks were never in the cards. 

When the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized general election debates since 1988, announced the debate schedule for 2020, the group made clear that they would be held over 90 minutes without commercial breaks.

Debates during the presidential primaries are generally organized by media outlets and do often have commercial breaks. But historically, general election debates have not.

The only opportunity that broadcast and cable networks have to monetize the debates are commercial blocks immediately before and after the debate itself. In 2016, some 30-second ads in these slots sold for more than $200,000, the Washington Post reported at the time.