Atlanta Journal-Constitution: CNN expects the biggest audience in its history Wednesday night for the second Republican presidential debate, which presents a major journalistic, technical and business challenge for the news network. Well before the lights go on, CNN faced controversy in staging the highly profitable two-part, 15-candidate event. It tweaked its rules to move businesswoman Carly Fiorina out of the “kids’ table” debate and expand the prime-time field to 11 after Fiorina and her backers complained.