ABC News focuses on the candidates with elegant, somber stage set for the debate

ABC News’ coverage of the September 10, 2024 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump took place in a self-described “intimate” setting and used a deeper, more subtle stage design than many debates in the past.

As with a COVID-era town hall meeting that ABC hosted in 2020, it took over the central hall of Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, a space that normally hosts a multimedia introduction to the museum that visitors see before visiting the exhibits. The space is a “round” setup without any modification, but for the 2020 and 2024 events, ABC decided to incorporate additional backdrops and treat it as a traditional stage layout.

There was no audience at the September 10 debate, so the rows of seats surrounding the room were largely obscured by live performances.

Viewers typically saw the candidates standing behind custom-made concave lecterns with illuminated accents inspired by the text of the U.S. Constitution.

A similar pattern was used for the backgrounds behind each candidate, leaving a blank black area in the center to hide the camera shutter and serve as a teleprompter for the presenters if needed.

The use of the Constitution as a backdrop behind the candidates during a debate actually has ties to the days when the Commission on Presidential Debates still handled these types of comparisons. The CPD added light blue backgrounds with white text of the Constitution as early as the 2008 cycle (before that, candidates typically stood against a deep blue background with some visible red accent lines).

ABC’s design team took the text a step further, carefully adjusting the scale, textures and lighting of the famous document’s words. A blur effect was added to make the focus less on the words and more on the candidate, while the background still gave the look some depth and texture.

The design also cleverly tilted the text slightly, another move that subtly communicated that the words were not intended to be read as real text.

Additional tape segments accentuated the space to the far left and right, and a large jigsaw puzzle arrangement was installed behind presenters David Muir and Linsey Davis, with most of their shots focusing solely on the background graphics.

ABC also set up some additional panels for practical reasons – to create a giant countdown clock that was particularly noticeable to the contestants.

This screen hung from the ceiling and was flanked by smaller digital displays showing the current time. The graphic used on the screen was not intended for spectators, but was shown briefly while the rules were explained. It included color-coded bars to help contestants estimate the time remaining.

The blocky design of the wall behind the presenters also allowed ABC to create another location without a visible camera position.

Muir and Davis sat at a small, curved desk with an LED front for ABC News branding. It was equipped with chin fillers as well as small rewind monitors and their own view of the countdown clock and a display of total elapsed time.

Much of the rest of the room was either shrouded in shadow or bathed in blue light, a strategy that gave the event a serious, even somber atmosphere.

The deep, rich colors, accentuated by subtle graphic patterns, helped significantly in keeping the focus on the candidates rather than the scenery, while maintaining the fine line of visual presentation.

ABC notably did not choose to place its logo behind the candidates, as debate sponsors or networks often do, nor were the backgrounds animated (CNN did not animate them during most of its August 27, 2024 debate between Trump and then-presidential candidate Joe Biden).

Project loans

• Production and set design: Seth Easter
• Associate Designer: Michael Moore for ABC News
• Artistic Director: Michael Ross Petersen
• Associated Art Directors: Richard Nocera and Sarah Brownstein
• Screen graphics Brandon Bell and Amanda Kmett-Pendry for ABC News
• Screen Server Control: Brandon Epperson for Fuse Technical Group
• Scenic design: ???
• Mobile stages: Filmwerks
• Rigging and additional platforms: United Staging
• Greenroom and additional furniture: Cort Rentals
• LED Integration: Fuse Technical Group
• Lighting design: Dennis Size for The Lighting Design Group
• Outdoor lighting by Dale Knoth for The Lighting Design Group

Photos courtesy of ABC News, Michael Le Brecht II