Update: Tonight's Fox News Presidential Debate live stream is underway! You can watch it online with the following instructions.
Fox News hosts the first Republican Presidential Debate live stream of 2016 tonight, Thursday January 28 at 4pm PT, 7pm ET. This GOP debate takes place at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa feature Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ben Carson, among other GOP candidates.
Noticeably absent from the tonight's debate live stream will be Donald Trump. If you watch online, you won't see him, and he blames it on his feud debate moderator Megyn Kelly. There's a podium waiting in the wings in case Trump changes his mind at the last second, according to Fox News Channel.
While the debate itself will be held at the Iowa, you don't have to make an insanely long commute to watch it in person. In fact, Fox News will stream it online for free, no subscription needed via its website.
Announced earlier this week, eight candidates have qualified for the main stage debate, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
The earlier undercard debate will feature former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. Yes, it's been months since we've seen Gilmore qualify for a GOP debate. Has hasn't dropped out yet.
In order to get into the main event, the candidate needed to place in the top six in an average of recent polls or in the top five in an average of recent Iowa or New Hampshire polls. The earlier debate has a much more lenient entry requirement of only 1% in at least one of the recent national polls.
How to watch the Fox News Presidential debate live stream
So, now that you know all the players and the restrictions to get in, only one question remains: how exactly do you tune in?
Well, thankfully, the answer here is a simple one. All you need to do is head over to Fox News' website where a live stream will be available, for free, without a subscription.
We'll provide the official Fox News Debate live stream link here once it becomes available. That usually happens a few hours before the first undercard GOP debate, so stay tuned.
The debate, by all accounts, should be a big one, as it's one of the last times the candidates will take the stage before the Iowa caucuses, which represent the formal start to the Republican presidential nominations.
To stream the debate on all desktop devices head over to FOXNews.com and you should see a link to the debate once it begins.
Of course, if you're looking for a more traditional way to watch the candidates dodge questions, you can tune into the Fox News TV channel and Fox New radio, as well as the Fox News Mobile and Fox News Go apps if you've got your mobile device around.
Fox News will also partner up with YouTube and Google this time around to offer real-time insights into the questions asked by the moderators via Google Trends, as well as additional questions from pre-chosen YouTube personalities.
OK, but how is this debate going to be different?
It will have Rand Paul, at least. Last time Paul's campaign did not garner enough of popularity to make it into the primetime debate, leading the Kentucky Senator to completely forgo the entire event.
Unfortunately, while Trump has new scores to settle with Ted Cruz and Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, we won't get to see that political drama play out.
The other big recent development was former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump, much to the chagrin of his opposition, while radio host Glenn Beck gave his nod to Ted Cruz.
But, admittedly, it won't be long until the political wagons circle again on February 6 when ABC will have its shot at hosting the Republican presidential contenders.
The next Democratic Presidential debate takes place at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday, Feb. 11, and will be hosted by PBS.
Continue on to the next page to read what happened at the last FBN Republican debate.
