Will Trump and Biden take questions from audience members at the CNN Presidential Debate Simulcast?

CNN's debate moderators, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will be the sole individuals asking questions in tonight's debate as there will be no live audience in the studio for the first time in decades.

President Biden and former President Trump's respective campaigns agreed to the no audience rule earlier this month. They also agreed the candidates' microphones will be muted outside their designated response times, as well as that they will only have access to a bottle of water, a pen and a pad of paper while at the podium.

The agreement to forego the live audience is a throwback to the first televised presidential debates in 1960 between then-Democrat Sen. John F. Kennedy, Jr. and then-Vice President Richard Nixon. 

There were smaller audiences during the 2020 presidential debates due to the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.