Candidates: Gary Bauer, George Bush, Steve Forbes, Orrin Hatch, Alan Keyes and John McCain.

Moderators: WMUR news director Karen Brown and FOX News managing editor and senior Washington correspondent Brit Hume.

Format: Opening remarks by moderators.  Moderator asks question of candidate who has 60 seconds to respond; moderator asks follow up question of the candidate who has 45 seconds to respond.  Next candidate asked a question.  Two minute closing statements for each candidate.

Broadcast live on WMUR-TV from 8:00-9:30 p.m. (EST). 

Overview: This was the first forum featuring all six GOP hopefuls, and great attention focused on how Gov. Bush would fare.  Subjects covered ranged from character and qualifications to policy views; some of the questions were quite pointed and  well-researched.  This was the first debate with built-in use of follow up questions.  The candidates answered six rounds of questions (five with follow up).
 

1. This forum, originally "The Republicans: A Campaign 2000 Forum," was to be co-sponsored by WMUR-TV and ABC News "Nightline" and moderated by WMUR-TV news director Karen Brown and "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel, with Kevin Landrigan, political reporter for The Telegraph (Nashua) also posing questions.  After the initial broadcast on WMUR-TV from 8:00-9:300 p.m. (EST) it was to be rebroadcast to a national audience on an extended edition of ABC News "Nightline" beginning at 11:35 p.m. (EST).  However, "Nightline" pulled out in in the second week of November because of concerns over the format.