Millions of Americans could miss ABC’s 2024 presidential debate between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris as the network remains embroiled in a battle with DirecTV.
Trump and Harris are set to debate each other for the first time on Sept. 10 in what will air on ABC as their only scheduled face off ahead of Election Day in November. Despite this, the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, pulled its channels from DirecTV’s 11.3 million subscribers nationwide after their contract expired on Sept. 1, according to Deadline.
ABC and other channels have gone dark for DirecTV subscribers. What does this mean for the presidential debate?https://t.co/NbG0DQb6u6
— TV Insider (@TVInsider) September 4, 2024
Along with ABC’s main channel, other channels showing the U.S. Open and college football went dark. This includes ESPN, FX, Disney Jr., and other Disney-owned networks, according to the outlet.
DirecTV CEO Ray Carpenter denied that service will return on Sept. 9 in time for the NFL’s Monday Night Football kickoff, Deadline reported.
“We’re not playing a short-term game,” Carpenter said on Sept. 3 in a conference call regarding overloaded packages causing customers to drop the service. “We need something that is going to work for the long-term sustainability of our video consumers. The resolve is there.”
While the debate may be inaccessible for DirecTV customers on ABC, the network confirmed it will be simulcast on other channels, according to the outlet.
Jon Greer, the Head of Communications & Community at DirecTV, reached out to the Daily Caller to explain that while ABC and more than 200 of the network’s local affiliate channels are unavailable to DirecTV customers, the debate will be simulcast on competing channels including CBS, NBC and FOX affiliates.
“Despite The Walt Disney Co.’s intent to withhold the Sept. 10 Presidential Debate from DIRECTV satellite customers in the eight cities where Disney owns the local ABC station and blocking its own local ABC affiliates from providing the ABC News debate coverage to any DIRECTV customers who choose to stream their news and analysis, DIRECTV customers will have access to this live event,” Greer told the Caller.
Greer called out Disney for suspending ABC stations in major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. He noted that Disney also suspended its ABC stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — “the largest population in what many describe as the most important swing state in the Presidential election.”
“This is a particularly difficult development for many of those ABC affiliate owners competing for record political advertising revenues expected to surpass $12.32B — a 29% boost over 2020 and 190% over 2016 – leading up to the Nov. 5 election. Major broadcasters like Nexstar, which owns or operates 30 ABC affiliates; Sinclair (28); Gray TV (23); Scripps (19); Hearst (15); TEGNA (13); and Allen Media, among others, find themselves at a loss by Disney’s move to deny their availability to any campaigns or other sponsors wishing to reach DIRECTV streaming homes and their voters,” Greer told the Caller.
Harris has been “extraordinary friends” with senior Disney executive Dana Walden since 1994, according to the New York Times. Walden has consistently donated to Harris’s various political campaigns since she ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003. Their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, knew each other since the 1980s.
The ABC debate will be held without an audience in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center at 9 p.m., according to ABC News. The network’s David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate. (RELATED: CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Asks Biden Point Blank How He Feels About Dems Pushing Him Off The Ticket)
Neither candidate may use notes or props. Trump and Harris must both stand for the entire debate, the outlet added.
The Harris campaign finally agreed Wednesday to the Trump campaign’s request for the same muted microphone rules that were in place during the former president’s CNN debate against President Joe Biden on June 27. Candidate microphones will be hot only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, ABC News noted. Candidates have two minutes to answer questions and two minutes for rebuttals. An additional minute for follow-up or clarification responses will be allowed.
Harris’s campaign told ABC in a letter that she “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President.”
Trump won a coin flip Tuesday that allowed him to decide which podium he will stand behind or whether he will speak first or last. Trump opted to have the last word in the debate, meaning Harris got to select her podium position. The vice president decided she will stand behind the podium on the right side of the screen, according to ABC News.
Weeks following his poor debate performance, Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 Democratic ticket and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on July 21. Before stepping aside, Biden was scheduled to participate in the ABC debate against Trump on Sept. 10.
Initially, Trump challenged Harris to three debates during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago home in early August. One of two debate proposals Harris snubbed was supposed to be with Fox News Wednesday night, so Trump sat down for a town hall with Sean Hannity instead. The other debate was proposed to air on Sept. 25 with NBC News.
Trump suggested to Hannity that Walden, who he called Harris’s “best friend,” will feed her the debate questions ahead of the showdown. The GOP nominee ripped into ABC News as biased, saying it is “the worst network.”
ABC previously dismissed concerns that the Disney executive’s ties to Harris present a conflict of interest in a statement to the New York Times.
“All editorial decisions are in the hands of ABC News management and the seasoned journalists and producers of ABC, who hold themselves to the highest journalistic standards,” the network said.
