Biden and Trump nixed the debate commission. What does it mean for voters?

Experts say the US presidential candidates ‘cut their own deals’ with networks, giving their campaigns greater control.

Time and again, he reached for his handkerchief, dabbing a face that glistened under the hot TV lights.

Richard Nixon would walk away from the first televised United States presidential debate in 1960 facing a barrage of criticisms: His performance was too shifty, too sweaty. After that race, he and other presidential candidates would refuse to take part in another debate for the next 16 years.

But in the 1980s, an organisation was created to push Republicans and Democrats to participate: the Commission on Presidential Debates. It would orchestrate the debates for the next three decades.

That streak ended this year, when the candidates took matters into their own hands. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump bypassed the commission for the first time in its history, negotiating instead with TV networks to host the debates.

On Thursday night, as the two candidates square off, viewers may not notice a major difference in format. But behind the scenes, experts say there has been a power shift — away from outside management and towards candidate control.