It seems wiser heads have prevailed and Fox news now will give debate airtime to second-tier GOP candidates whose poll numbers are not currently among the top 10.
The wiser heads belong to the GOP leaders of New Hampshire and to newspaper editors.
This week, dozens of GOP leaders signed a letter stating Fox's decision to write off any candidate polling below 10 percent was not in keeping with - essentially - the American way. Voters, not television networks, should decide who's in the running for president, New Hampshire politicians wrote.
On the heels of the letter, the New Hampshire Union-Leader published a story announcing it would host a forum on Aug. 6. Publisher Joe McQuaid was quoted in the story saying that the qualification criteria established by Fox for the first debate - that candidates must rank in the top 10 in an average of recent national polls - "isn't just bad for New Hampshire; it's bad for the presidential selection process by limiting the field to only the best-known few with the biggest bankrolls."
On Thursday, Fox officially reinvented its plan. The network announced it will host a forum earlier on the same day for those candidates who fail to qualify for the evening's primetime event. Fox's new rules still limit the evening's main event to the top 10 candidates as measured by the average of the most recent five reputable national polls.
So there you have it: Just one big happy family - with an adults table and a kids table.