How to watch the 1st GOP debate Wednesday

People tuning in to the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election Wednesday may find themselves scrambling to find the broadcast online if they only have an antenna or basic TV plan.

Fox News (channel 47 on Cox and 360 on DirecTV) and Fox Business will air the debate on cable. But the local Fox 10 station will not show it live.

The debate also will be streamed via the Fox News website, the on-demand subscription service Fox Nation and Rumble, a video platform and competitor to YouTube that is particularly popular among conservative viewers for programming such as "Triggered with Donald Trump Jr.," "The Kimberly Guilfoyle Show," and "The Dan Bongino Show."

The debate begins at 6 p.m. Arizona time and is scheduled to last two hours. Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier will be on stage with the candidates.

Former President Donald Trump, who has remained frustrated with Fox News after the network correctly called Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020 as votes still were being counted, has said he will not participate in the GOP debates.

Republican debate live updates: The latest news and Arizona-focused analysis

Major media outlets reported Monday that Trump pre-recorded an interview with fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson to be shown after the official debate, though exactly where that would be available remains unclear.

Carlson was let go shortly after Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to a company that makes voting equipment. The company, Dominion Voting Systems, sued the cable channel for numerous false claims its personalities made about the company and how elections work.

How is Trump polling?

Trump is polling strongly in the Republican field, which he cited as his reason for not participating in the GOP debates when he posted his decision publicly Sunday on social media.

A new NBC News-Des Moines Register-Mediacom poll of likely Iowa voters — an important group because of the state's early primary, scheduled for Jan. 15 — shows 42% of likely Republican caucus voters choosing Trump as their first pick for president, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pulling 19%.

The rest of the GOP field did no better than South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott's 9%.

That same poll, which included 406 respondents contacted Aug. 13-17, and with a margin of error of 4.9%, also found that 66% of respondents had a favorable view of DeSantis, compared with 65% for Trump.

In a social media post about the poll, Trump said DeSantis was "crashing like an ailing bird!"

A CBS News poll showed Trump is stronger among nationwide GOP voters in spite of, or even perhaps because of, his four criminal indictments that have dominated the news cycle in recent months.

More: Court records show Cyber Ninjas' CEO Doug Logan is 'Individual 25' in Georgia's Trump indictment

Where is the GOP debate?

The debate will be at Fiserv Forum, home to the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team. While the Milwaukee area leans Democratic, Wisconsin went to Trump in 2016 when he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and then swung to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 when Trump lost his re-election campaign.

Between 4,000 and 6,000 people will be allowed to view the debate live.

If Trump skips out, who will debate?

The Republican National Committee announced the participants in Wednesday's debate will include DeSantis, Scott, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The committee set requirements for debate participants in June. The criteria set by the RNC include:

• Being eligible to run and having declared being a candidate, including having made the proper federal filings to run.

• Polling at least 1% in three national polls, or 1% in two national polls and 1% in polls from two of the early voting states, including Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Certain criteria for those polls also is required.

• Have at least 40,000 unique donors to the candidate’s campaign committee or exploratory committee, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20-plus states and/or territories.

• Sign a pledge agreeing not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debate for the remainder of the election cycle, and pledge to support the eventual party nominee. Participants also must agree to share campaign data with the RNC.

The highest polling candidates will get to stand closest to center stage Wednesday.

Will Kari Lake be there?

Major media outlets reported last week that Trump affiliates, including failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, would travel to Wisconsin to possibly appear in the "spin room" after the debate to advocate for the former president.

The media outlet Axios, however, reported Monday that a Fox News memo indicates that the cable network will restrict access to the spin room to aides of the participating candidates.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @UtilityReporter.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How to watch the 1st Republican presidential debate Wednesday