United States presidential debates, 2016 (15%)

The 2016 United States presidential election debates were a series of debates held for the 2016 U.S. presidential general election. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization formed in 1987, organized three debates among the major presidential candidates. The first presidential debate for the 2016 election took place on September 26, 2016, and set the record as the most-watched debate in American history, with 94 million viewers. The only vice-presidential debate was held on October 4. The second presidential debate took place on October 9, and the final debate took place on October 19. All CPD debates occurred from approximately 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT).

The debates included Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Republican nominee Donald Trump, Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, and Green nominee Jill Stein. They were the first debates to include a third-party candidate since the 1992 debate with Ross Perot.

Debate organizers
The Commission on Presidential Debates stipulates three criteria for eligibility for the presidential debates: constitutional eligibility to serve as president, appearance on enough ballots to potentially reach 270 electoral votes, and an average at least 15% on five selected national polls. For the vice-presidential debate, the running mates of the presidential candidates qualifying for the first presidential debate were invited.

On August 15, the CPD announced that it would use the most recent CBS/New York Times, Fox News, CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, NBC/Wall Street Journal, and ABC/Washington Post polls for the debate criteria and that candidates must be at an average of 15% in these polls.

On September 16, the commission announced the official invitation of Clinton, Trump, Johnson, and Stein to participate in the first debate to be held on September 26 at Hofstra University.