Why has CNN Changed September debate criteria?

CNN issued a statement today that announced the media giant was changing the criteria for choosing the candidates who would appear in this month’s CNN republican primary debate.

The news network had assumed that there would be many more polls after the GOP debate, but that has not proven true:

In a world where we expected there to be at least 15 national polls, based on historic precedent, it appears there will be only five. As a result, we now believe we should adjust the criteria to ensure the next debate best reflects the most current state of the national race. In the event that any candidate is polling in the top 10 in an average of approved national polls released between August 7th and September 10th, we will add those candidates to our top tier debate, even if those candidates did not poll in the top 10 in an average of approved national polls between July 16th and September 10th.

This change will likely fix the flaw in CNN’s criteria that would have kept out up-and-comers like Carly Fiorina as we reported last month while allowing those dropping the polls, Chris Christie and Rand Paul, to stay in.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus endorsed the change saying “I applaud CNN for recognizing the historic nature of this debate and fully support the network’s decision to amend their criteria.”

There are two more national polls expected before the September 10th cut-off so the exact make-up of the debate stage is yet to be known, but at least the stage will be populated by candidates who are still polling well – not only the ones that did well before the debate.