The Republican presidential hopefuls are not the only ones taking center stage at the University of Alabama on Wednesday.

NewsNation, the upstart 24/7 cable TV network that bills itself as “unbiased,” will broadcast its first presidential primary debate at a time its emergence is stirring a debate over whether balanced political journalism has a place in the highly competitive and fragmented cable TV world.

The news channel was rebranded from WGN America in March 2021, and has seen its audience grow over the past 1,000 days. But the network’s ratings remain far behind cable TV’s mainstays – Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN – and it also trails conservative upstart Newsmax, according to the most recent Nielsen ratings.

“The debate will definitely bring new eyes to the network, which is a good thing for a media organization trying to compete for a new audience in a sea of other networks,” said Stefanie Hicks East, assistant professor of Journalism and Communication Studies at Troy University.

The debate will air on NewsNation from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday at the Frank Moody Music Hall.

“This will probably be the first time many Americans turn on NewsNation, and you only get one first impression,” said Daniel Bennett, associate professor of political science at Arkansas-based John Brown University, a private Christian institution.

Unbiased approach

Indeed, the debate comes at a time when NewsNation is elbowing itself into a conversation among the biggest players on cable TV by positioning itself at the heart of a debate that underscores politics in America: Should the news be agenda-free, unshackled from partisan biases and delivered in a manner that is engaging and financially sustainable?

Polling suggests NewsNation is trying to pitch to the public what it says it wants. According to a Pew Research analysis last year, three-quarters of U.S. adults say journalists should strive to give all sides equal coverage.

NewsNation’s efforts also come at a time of continued dwindling confidence in all media. A Gallup poll in October showed the trust in mass media – newspapers, TV, and radio – to be tied at its historical previous lows recorded in 2016.

“There is a strange cable news marketplace right now,” said Josh McCrain, assistant professor at the University of Utah, who has measured dynamics in media bias. “I think the idea that there is some sort of untapped potential for a centrist outlet is there. It seems to make sense, to me, from a business model perspective to give this a shot.”

He added, “But there is not enough potential demand for an ‘unbiased’ news program that people will want to tune in regularly. I could be wrong, but there is not a lot of evidence for it.”

In Alabama, the network, and its pitch to the country, will be on full display.

Related: NewsNation announces Republican presidential primary debate programming in Alabama

“Presidential debates are one of the most important news events in the country,” said Rick Morris, a professor at the School of Communication at Northwestern University. “It is a sign that a news organization has the talent, resources, and the technical ability to deliver one of the most important dialogues and one of the most important public services.”

Alabama GOP praise

NewsNation will deploy its team of journalists and prime-time hosts to Tuscaloosa for pre-and post-debate coverage. Elizabeth Vargas, a former ABC nightly news anchor, is one of the three moderators. Former CNN star Chris Cuomo, former Fox News correspondent Leland Vittert, and former Fox Business Network host Connell McShane – among others – will provide reports from “The Capstone.” Former Trump and Obama administration officials will weigh in with commentary throughout the day on Wednesday.

It’s a mix of right and left and the center ahead of a debate geared for Republican primary voters.

Alabama’s GOP chairman John Wahl is confident in the network’s ability to pull off a successful debate.

“NewsNation is one of the fastest growing media outlets in the country, and they give us an amazing opportunity to reach a whole new audience of voters,” Wahl said.

He said the Republican National Committee’s debate team, led by David Bossie – deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s successful run for the presidency in 2016 – did an “extensive analysis” and vetted “all the outlets vying” to host the debate and to “ensure potential Republican primary voters across the country will have the chance to learn more about the candidates and their platforms.”

Wahl said NewsNation’s professionalism is “second to none,” and is a “good fit for Alabama,” noting the local affiliates throughout the state. Nexstar has local TV stations in Birmingham, Mobile, Dothan, and Huntsville.

He also praises the moderators who will be firing off questions at the candidates.

Vargas will be joined at the moderator’s desk by Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief of the conservative Washington Free Beacon and Megyn Kelly, a media personality who once was a star on Fox News.

Wahl called Vargas “a respected, award-winning journalist.” He said he looks forward to how she interacts with Johnson and Kelly, two right-leaning moderators.

Vargas told AL.com that her focus is to get the candidates to speak beyond their political talking points about issues that Republican voters care about. Kelly, in an interview with The Washington Examiner, was critical of the questions in the past debates and vowed to ask compelling questions that GOP primary voters care about.

“This will be a much more conservative panel of moderators when compared to the last debate, and I think that better reflects the conservative values of the Republican Party and the people of Alabama,” Wahl said.

Right-leaning bias?

But does showcasing a Republican debate in deep-red Alabama hurt NewsNation’s marketing as an unbiased network?

East, the professor at Troy University, said it will be a challenge.

“Airing a Republican debate, and one that is hosted by two outspoken conservative journalists in Megyn Kelly and Eliana Johnson, may overshadow its stated mission, and make audiences think it is trying to compete with known conservative networks,” she said.

A.J. Bauer, assistant professor at the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama, said that by hosting a Republican primary debate, the network is “attempting to appeal” to audiences that view CNN as too liberal but who also see Fox News as “too radical.”

“I’m not sure there is a significant audience who believes that, but I doubt it,” said Bauer, who studies right-wing media and political communications. “The proliferation and success of right-wing cable outlets like Newsmax and OAN means that Fox is increasingly seen as the ‘center-right’ option among conservatives. I don’t see NewsNation usurping Fox, and I don’t see its hosting of a Republican primary debate as being particularly appealing to centrist liberals either.”

NewsNation has, for years, pointed to a media bias chart by Colorado-based Ad Fontes Media, a nonpartisan company that compiles data and rates the political leanings of media outlets. The most recent study, from August, lists NewsNation and CNN ahead of Fox News, MSNBC, and Newsmax based on its “reliability” rating.

In terms of bias, the chart has NewsNation in the middle or skewing “every-so-slightly right.” CNN “skews left,” MSNBC is a “strong left,” while Fox News charts as a “strong right” and Newsmax is “hyper partisan right.”

Bauer said that NewsNation’s market positioning could be considered “reactionary centrist.”

“By marketing themselves as impartial and balanced, vis a vis the current cable news market, they are buying into the conservative and Republican trope that an outlet like CNN is ‘liberal,’” said Bauer, arguing that CNN is “not particularly liberal,” meaning that NewsNation’s conception of “center” might be “center-right.”

“It is betting its success on a center-right audience that is dissatisfied with its current news options,” Bauer said. “I don’t believe such an audience exists in any significant numbers, so they have their work cut out for them.”

Jon Gray, a Mobile-based political strategist, said that NewsNation likely benefitted in securing the Republican debate simply because it’s not Fox News, which has lost viewers in the past year, or CNN, which he argues is unwatchable for most conservatives in Alabama.

“It’s a testament that they’ve survived and made a name for themselves, or it may be that simply they are not CNN,” Gray said. “If you’re a Republican primary voter this cycle, you are not watching CNN. There is no philosophical or justifiable reason that a legitimate, openly Republican voter is watching CNN. There are also a lot of people who watch Fox News who felt like it sold out and changed. (Those viewers) don’t feel like they have a home anymore.”

Growing network

NewsNation is touting its numbers since 2021, illustrated by a 23% growth in total viewers in its weekday primetime slate from October 2022-October 2023, and a 38% growth in the 25-54 age demographic during that time frame. That year-to-year growth is higher than CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, according to the October Nielsen’s figures.

NewsNation averages 106,000 prime time views, far behind the other three cable networks. It also trails Newsmax. Fox News, while experiencing a drop in viewers since Tucker Carlson left the network, draws an average of 2.1 million viewers to its prime-time offerings and has been the top-rated cable news network for close to three years.

NewsNation’s numbers were criticized in February by Paul Farhi, media reporter with The Washington Post, who recognized that CNN – which has fallen behind Fox News and MSNBC – regularly attracts more than 10 times as many viewers per night than NewsNation.

That column drew a strong rebuke by NewsNation anchor Dan Abrams, who compared the network’s ratings to MSNBC and Fox News in the late 1990s, when both those stations were emerging. He said that NewsNation was positioned to outpace Fox News and MSNBC’s ratings from 1999, three years after both stations were first launched.

NewsNation, as Farhi pointed out in his piece, has the backing of Nexstar — the largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S. that employs more than 5,000 journalists, which the network can draw upon when covering domestic news.

“It has a presence all over the country,” said East at Troy University. “If NewsNation wants to continue its rise in popularity, it will work to appeal to diverse communities everywhere who have varying beliefs and opinions.”