The first question of Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, poised by Megyn Kelly, did not dance around the fact that the leading candidate for the GOP nomination as not on the stage.
Instead, her first question focused on "the elephant not in the room." So did the second question.
After that, however, the debate, moderated by Fox News anchors Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, hit whatever might pass for a stride in the ahem, lively center of politics these days.
Among the newer features of the Fox News debate were videos of candidates' previous statements, which the moderators used to confront the candidates when they made statements inconsistent with their previous positions. Instead of having the moderators read the statements, those at the debate and watching elsewhere were able to see actual clips of the candidates.
The clips did a far better job of putting candidates on the spot and led to some tense moments.
After one set of clips, Kelly asked Ted Cruz about his previous stance on immigration, "Was it all an act?"
Cruz stumbled through a vague answer.
@FoxNews wises up, playing videos of politcians' words rather than reading them, so they can't claim media is making it up #GOPDebate— Emily Cadei (@emilycadei) January 29, 2016
Um these clips are devastating— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) January 29, 2016
Right now on Fox new debate: they are doing a DailyShow-style showing videos of candidates contradicting themselves— Rob Graham ❄️ (@ErrataRob) January 29, 2016
Meanwhile, about three miles away, Trump has hosting his own event. Billed as a fundraiser for veterans, the soiree featured a variety of speakers including Trump himself, who implied that Fox News had been trying to get him to come to the debate at the very last minute. In an interview with CNN released about an hour before the debate, Trump said that someone at Fox News had called to apologize to him.
Roger Ailes, the head of the division, disputed Trump's assertion and said the candidate had attempted to get the network to contribute $5 million to his favorite charities before he would appear on stage.
#Break: Statement from Fox News about Trump-Ailes conversations pic.twitter.com/6iTXQTc5W6— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) January 29, 2016
The Trump event also provided the other news networks with the chance to steal some thunder from Fox News.
CNN and MSNBC both covered the Trump event live, cutting in and out depending on whether he was on stage.
Currently, Fox News has two people previewing a debate that will feature seven candidates. CNN has nine people previewing a speech by one.— Will Leitch (@williamfleitch) January 29, 2016
~7 mins till the debate and CNN and MSNBC both showing live shots of the Trump event. Will both devote 2 hours of coverage to it?— John Koblin (@koblin) January 29, 2016
Trump's absence may end up hitting the ratings for the debate, although some indications showed that interest remained higher for the Fox News event. Google Trends found that searches for the debate livestream easily outpaces those for the Trump livestream.
Which one is being searched more: “Debate live stream” or “Trump live stream”? #GOPdebate pic.twitter.com/PG0ZXglFCo— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) January 29, 2016