Both candidates walk on stage, and the moderator explains the rules; two minutes for an answer to a question, followed by a one-minute rebuttal, followed by thirty seconds for a counterpoint.
During the health care portion of the debate, both Santos and Vinick leave their podium while attempting to make bold statements, causing an offscreen technician to have to give both handheld microphones.
[2] Despite the risky nature of a live performance, O'Donnell commented that he was not worried, telling the Associated Press that it would be just as fun to watch if things went wrong, akin to a "train wreck".
[1][4] The Associated Press referred to the episode as both "startlingly realistic" and "straight out of fantasyland", wondering why real-life politicians would not emulate the open-debate format.
[5] In a post-debate poll conducted by MSNBC and Zogby International of 1,208 viewers, respondents thought that Santos won the debate, by 54 to 38 percent.
The debate was set up to downsize the role of the moderator significantly, where they would only ask the first question and let both candidates continue the conversation for the remaining hour.