How to Watch GOP Republican Debate 2015 Now: Live Stream, CNN Start Time & TV Schedule

Dec 15, 2015 10:12 AM EST

The Republican Party is about to meet again for another round of debate, and it will be the fifth and last one for this year. The debate hits the airwaves on Tuesday night courtesy of CNN. Here are the details about how to watch live stream online, schedule, and TV listings.


For interested viewers, they catch the live debate on the Internet.  CNN announced that they will be live streaming the debate starting at 5 p.m. EST and ending at 11 p.m. when the post-debate coverage wraps up.

The TV network will offer the live stream telecast to anyone who has an Internet connection, and it will be for free. Just visit the CNN homepage at CNN.com, and the live stream will be available from there.

According to Sun Times, the main event, which will feature the top nine candidates who earned more than 3.5 percent in qualifying polls, will start at 7:30 p.m. EST.

Businessman Donald Trump, the front-runner for the nomination, will again be center stage flanked by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on his right, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on the left of Carson. The other six participants are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, businessperson Carly Fiorina, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

For the first set of debates on Tuesdays evening, four candidates will be featured. They are former New York Gov. George Pataki , South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sen. Rick Santorum.

For Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, she returned to the primary debate after being bumped off in a Fox Business debate on November. In recent surveys, she earned enough votes in order to qualify in the main event.

In case of Paul, who was in danger of being removed from primary debate, he was saved at the 11th hour by showing viability in polls released Sunday. The senator garnered more than 4% of votes in Iowa in recent polls.

For the main debate, candidates must earned at least 3.5 percent support nationally or 4 percent in either Iowa or New Hampshire. These major polls should be conducted from Oct. 29 to Dec. 13.

The TV network considered national and state surveys from Pew Research Center, Quinnipiac University, Time, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, ABC News, Bloomberg News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, Gallup, Marist University, McClatchy News Service, Monmouth News Service, NBC News, The New York Times, The Des Moines Register, the University of New Hampshire, WBUR and WMUR.

CNN explained that they want to broadcast the debate for free because they believe streaming in it is a matter of public interest. In the past debates, other TV networks asked viewers to pay for a TV password to watch.