A channel you never watch is where you should tune in to tonight's presidential debate

Splitscreen or bust
 By 
Jason Abbruzzese
 on 
A channel you never watch is where you should tune in to tonight's presidential debate
Credit: Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

You are going to be able to watch tonight's debate on basically any channel, device and location.

You should watch it on C-SPAN.

Yes, the humble Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network should be your destination tonight for one simple reason — it will be showing both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump the entire time in a split screen.


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This lets us watch each nominee as they react to the other. Yes, you absolutely will want to be able to see both candidates for the entire 90 minutes of this debate.

Monday night will be the first time the candidates square off in the same room. In the media, they've been going at each other for months.

Sure, Clinton is plenty expressive, but let's not forget this little sequence by Trump during one of the Republican presidential debates.

The splitscreen isn't new. C-SPAN has offered it for many of the past debates — and it has been impactful.

In the 2000 debate between George H.W. Bush and Al Gore, the splitscreen showed Gore sighing at some of Bush's answers — reactions that became the subject of some criticism. In 2004, Bush's reactions toward John Kerry ended up the topic of discussion.

Below is the splitscreen debate from 2000 with Bush and Gore. Give it a look to see what you're in store for.

C-SPAN can be found on just about every TV with a cable connection. The splitscreen will be shown on its main C-SPAN channel throughout the debate. The channel will also be livestreaming the splitscreen on its website, which can be viewed on just about any internet-connected device.

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Jason Abbruzzese

Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.

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