On Wednesday night, eight Republican presidential candidates gathered in Milwaukee for the first GOP primary debate.

There was a lot on the line for each of them. But there was also an enormous amount at stake for the news organization that hosted the debate: Fox News.

Consider the cross currents that the two Fox moderators, Martha McCallum and Bret Baier, had to deal with: 

First there was Trump, who refused to participate and lashed out at Fox and its talent, including Baier, on social media.

Then there was Tucker Carlson, McCallum and Baier’s former star colleague who is in messy litigation with the network, and who nabbed Trump for himself and counter-programmed the evening with an interview that aired simultaneously with the Fox debate. 

Then there was Rupert Murdoch hovering in the background. In the days before the debate there were new reports that the man who runs Fox, MacCallum and Baier’s boss, has his own strong feelings about who the GOP nominee should be. 

If that isn’t enough, on the eve of the debate, several candidates who didn’t qualify to be on stage threatened to sue.  

Add to that the challenges of being the ones asking the uncomfortable questions in that arena on Wednesday. The candidates are primed to pounce on you if it serves their political interests. The boisterous crowd of partisans could turn on you at any moment. 

So what was it like behind the scenes at the Fox News debate? How did the hosts prepare, including for a possible last-minute appearance by Trump? What did they think of the highly caffeinated Mike Pence interrupting them at every turn? What was the deal with DeSantis and Christie during that one hand-raising moment? And whose idea was that UFO question, anyway? 

On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza asks Martha and Bret those questions and a lot more as they bring us inside what is perhaps the most important event of the GOP primary so far.

Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Martha MacCallum is the anchor and executive editor of "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Fox News Channel.
Bret Baier is the Fox News Channel's anchor and executive editor of "Special Report with Bret Baier" and chief political anchor of the network.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio. 
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.

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