With Thursday the cut-off for deciding who made the big stage for the Sept. 16 GOP debate on CNN, the news net announced who would be in the debate and Carly Fiorina made the cut, which means there will be 11 candidates in the primetime square-off.
Trump will be center stage given his status as the clear front-runner.
The candidates were chosen based on 14 polls including interviews with potential Republican primary votes, said CNN. Fiorina made the list after it modified its selection criteria to reflect her improved poll numbers—she is now in the top 10—since the last debate.
The other five candidates in the field will get their own platform at 6 p.m., as Fox did with its Aug. 6 debate.
Making the primetime cut were 1) Donald Trump: 23.929 (average of all 14 polls); 2) Jeb Bush: 11.500; 3) Scott Walker: 9.429; 4) Ben Carson: 8.929; 5) Ted Cruz: 6.286; 6) Marco Rubio: 5.643; 7) Mike Huckabee: 5.571; 8) Rand Paul: 4.714; 9) John Kasich: 3.214; 10) Chris Christie: 3.143; and 11) Carly Fiorina: 2.229.
In the 6 p.m. debate are 12) Rick Perry: 1.814 [UPDATE: Perry has since said he is suspending his campaign]; 13) Rick Santorum: 1.214; 14) Bobby Jindal: 1.057; 15) George Pataki: 0.529; and 16) Lindsey Graham: 0.471.
Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore did not make either because he did not meet the minimum criteria of getting at least !% support in any three polls. He had 1% in only one poll, said CNN.
The polls were "a Fox News poll released July 17; a Washington Post/ABC News poll released July 20; a CNN/ORC poll released July 26; a Quinnipiac University poll released July 30; a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released August 2; a Monmouth University poll released August 3; a Fox News poll released August 3; a Bloomberg Politics poll released August 4; a CBS News poll released August 4; a Fox News poll released August 16; a CNN/ORC poll released August 18; a Quinnipiac University poll released August 27; a Monmouth University poll released September 3; and a CNN/ORC poll released September 10."
That Sept. 10 poll had Trump at 32% and with GOP voters saying they thought Trump was the most likely to get the nomination.
