How Fox News organized 3 town halls at the Iowa Events Center days before Iowa Caucuses

While many families were busy with Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, Fox News was preparing to present three back-to-back town halls in Des Moines with Republican presidential primary candidates.

The town halls, which began with former U.N Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday, all took place at the Iowa Events Center.

A town hall for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was held Tuesday and the final town hall is set for tonight with former President Donald Trump at 8 p.m. Iowa time — the same time CNN airs a live, televised debate between Haley and DeSantis. The town halls are moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier, both hosts on Fox News programming.

Getting the set, lighting and camera equipment to the Iowa Events Center were just some of the tasks that took place over the course of the holidays.

The Des Moines Register visited the Iowa Events Center on Tuesday afternoon, the same day as DeSantis’ town hall, to take a peek at the set and learn what it takes to produce the televised event.

More: Everything about the Iowa Caucuses that you should know

The set was quiet save for the recurrent sounds that seemed straight out of a futuristic sci-fi flick but actually were of cameras synching, Scott Wilder, executive vice president of productions and operations, explained.

Day of a town hall is “fairly calm,” Wilder said, in part because it’s largely set up by then. Also, a town hall had already been crossed off Fox News’ list at the time of the Register’s visit.

Seats, about 200 of them, were arranged in rows for the live audience. Cameras were set up near the stage, though don’t anticipate seeing any podiums. This isn’t a debate.

But by the time it is 6 p.m., the time DeSantis' town hall was to start, the room will have long stopped being quiet.

Audiences will be seated. The presidential candidate, in this case, DeSantis, will have arrived about an hour before the programming.

Then, the questions begin.

Here are three things you may not know about Fox News’ town halls in Des Moines ahead of Trump’s town hall.

More: Drake University will take center stage with this week's CNN Republican presidential debate

How should a moderator approach their role for a town hall? Martha MacCallum has an answer.

“Bret and I are there to facilitate the conversation,” MacCallum said. “To give the audience of voters an opportunity to ask a question to the candidate. And then to follow up when there's a need to follow up because our job is to do our research, to be ready to sort of pin down an answer or to challenge an answer where that's required. And make sure that we are providing that balance and that background that might be needed to follow up that question or to get it to the next stage of depth in terms of what's true, what's not true.”

The star of the show…

…is the set.

Of course, it’s not really the star of the show, Wilder clarified after the joke.

Viewers might recognize the set, previously used for Republican presidential primary debates held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Simi Valley, California, last year, he said.

The archway spans 60 feet across the stage floor, which is naturally gray in color but reflective of the ambient light, producing a shine. At the center of the stage floor is a large image of the presidential seal (and where MacCallum, Baier and the presidential primary candidate will sit). A video wall adorns the back of the stage, creating one large, seamless display.

The set’s design allows crews to position a camera facing the audience — or in the case of a debate, where the moderators would be seated to face the candidates — so that it’s not “awkwardly in the background,” Wilder said.

Rehearsals include lighting and audio, and for good reason

In a debate, candidates are likely behind a podium. In a town hall, a candidate might move around the stage to engage with the audience.

Wilder said they can give candidates guidance on where lighting falls best, but they also want candidates to be comfortable.

(The advice is to stay within the seal on the stage floor.)

Ensuring candidates can hear questions and the audience can too is important, but so is the audio for people tuning into the town hall across America.

“We worry about program audio,” Wilder said of a rehearsal. “That's the audio that the audience at home watching on TV hears. That's the most important thing, right?”

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at PBarraza@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: How Fox planned 3 GOP presidential candidate town halls in Des Moines