When President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump debate each other on Thursday, they will be continuing a tradition that started in the United States over 60 years ago.
The first televised presidential debate took place on September 26, 1960, when US Sen. John F. Kennedy faced off against Vice President Richard Nixon. It was one of the most-watched broadcasts in US history. More than 66 million people watched out of a population of about 180 million.
"I don't think it's overstating the fact that, on that date, politics and television changed forever," said Bruce DuMont, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and former president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "After that debate, it was not just what you said in a campaign that was important, but how you looked saying it."
The two men would take part in three more debates before the election, which Kennedy won. Debates did not take place again until 1976. Since then, there have been debates in every presidential cycle.
The Biden-Trump debate will be hosted by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, and it will take place in the network’s Atlanta studios with no audience present — an anomaly in debates between presidential candidates.
This will also be the earliest presidential debate in US history. Debates between general election candidates have always started in September or early October.