YouTube Stars To Query Republican Presidential Candidates During January 28th Debate

On January 28th, YouTube stars will interact with the Republican presidential candidates. That evening’s GOP debate, which will be broadcast on Fox News, will feature the input of several content creators, who will pose questions to the assembled politicians.

The YouTube stars who will appear during the debate haven’t been named yet, but they will receive a similar opportunity to the one Franchesca Ramsey, Connor Franta, Marques Brownlee and Henry Reich received when they queried the Democratic presidential candidates during a January 17th debate. A trio of YouTube stars also chatted with Barack Obama during a live streaming interview that took place a few days after the President’s final State of the Union address.

The participation of YouTube stars during the January 28th GOP debate is part of a larger partnership between Google and Fox News. As part of the deal, the latter company

will incorporate the former company’s search trends into its broadcast and will use those data points to devise new questions for the candidates in real time. Fox News did not say if it plans to stream the debate on YouTube, as NBC News did with the January 17th Democratic tussle.

The January 28th debate take place in Des Moines, Iowa and will begin at 9 PM EST, with Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace serving as hosts. As with previous debates, the GOP’s top contenders are expected to take the stage together, while the party’s lesser candidates will likely be relegated to an earlier “kids’ table” debate. Most importantly, this will be the final debate before the February 1st Iowa caucus, which will officially get primary season underway.