Gentle readers:
A podium is a platform or stage. You stand on a podium.
A lectern is a speaker’s desk. You stand behind a lectern.
And then the format would die off, mercifully. As of now, the networks have gently reminded the campaigns that it is the candidate who needs to get free “news” airtime, not the TV network who needs to give the candidate free airtime.
I think the candidates’ assumption that everything would be tightly controlled is a product of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has sponsored the debates since 1984. The Commission was set up to avoid a repeat of the 1980 debate debacle, where Carter (?) sat out because he disagreed with the inclusion of a 3rd-party candidate, answering the question of “what if the major networks covered a debate and one of the major candidates didn’t show?” The answer: he loses. Instead of incentivizing candidates to participate, a solution that allowed them to set the terms was created. The CPD perpetuates the two-party model that both major candidates want to see. No third party means no tough questions. The CPD grudgingly included Perot in the 1992 debates because Clinton’s campaign was ambivalent and Bush’s campaign thought that Perot would take Clinton down a peg.
Check out how the rules prohibit the candidates from joining any other debate with any other candidate. Until the debates can be wrestled out of the control of the CPD, we’re stuck with two parties who realize that they can cooperate to remove any other threats to their existence.