Forget Khrushchev and farm subsidies—was Richard Nixon wearing makeup? That was the hot talking point after the first televised presidential debate, on September 26, 1960. Nearly half the TV-owning public watched John F. Kennedy, the 43-year-old Democratic senator from Massachusetts, face off against the Republican vice president. On substance, the first Great Debate was a draw, but Kennedy scored a TKO on style. Reporters harped on Nixon’s appearance: He looked wan after a recent hospitalization, and his suit blended with the set’s gray backdrop. (His aides had turned away CBS’s makeup artist, opting instead to mask his 5 o’clock shadow with Max Factor’s Lazy Shave, making him look even worse than he felt.) Soon after the matchup, Edward R. Murrow said, “The reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.”

This month, the grand tradition those statesmen began devolves further as candidates for the Republican nomination take viewer-submitted video questions in a CNN-YouTube debate. The Democrats’ version, in July, included queries from a cancer survivor and “Billiam the Snowman.” It produced no watershed moments and attracted only 2.6 million viewers—less than half the audience of W.W.E.’s Raw. This new McTown Hall format—complete with a 25-foot video screen, Anderson Cooper, and (here’s hoping) a snowman with a baby-carrot mouth—may forever alter political debates, but for now, at least in terms of substance, advantage Lincoln-Douglas.