Something Seems to Be Missing from Fox News’ 5 PM Debate: The Audience

There appears to be something missing from Fox News’ 5 pm pre-debate debate. All the candidates are there, moderators Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum showed up, but there was something kind of big missing.

An audience:

Yep, there were a lot of empty chairs at the “kids table” debate today, and only a few people could be heard clapping for the candidates.

And while it was obviously expected the 5 pm debate wouldn’t garner nearly as much interest, the lack of an actual audience really got noticed on Twitter:

I hope none of the candidates are dependent on feeding off a crowd

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) August 6, 2015

Good point, but home audience SEEING sparse crowd is kinda sad. #GOPDebate https://t.co/2OWMvhiSl3

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 6, 2015

Couldn't fox have round up some homeless people to sit in the audience for the short bus debate? Empty room seems purposefully cruel

— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) August 6, 2015

I wonder if not having an audience is making the candidates more uncomfortable

— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) August 6, 2015

Carly Fiorina awkwardly brings up call frm B Clinton to Trump. Might have been an applause line…if there was an AUDIENCE! #KidsTableDebate

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) August 6, 2015

From the applause sounds like the audience is only the immediate families of the candidates. #FoxKiddieDebate

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) August 6, 2015

It's ridiculous to have a "debate" in a 20K seat arena. I can't begin to describe what it is to have a "forum" in an EMPTY 20K seat arena.

— Drew McCoy (@DrewMTips) August 6, 2015

Were candidates not allowed to bring in people to watch this debate? Empty room is pretty stark. #GOPDebate

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 6, 2015

Well the Happy Hour debate forgot to hire seat fillers. Tons of empty chairs. Great job @FoxNews #GOPDebate #FoxKiddieDebate

— Davante Lewis (@davantelewis) August 6, 2015

Below is video of how the 5 pm debate opened, and just listen for how little applause there is (via Fox):

Correction: A previous version of this post misidentified MacCallum as fellow Fox anchor Shannon Bream.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac