thinking to myself how much better it’d be if the format for these things allowed for more conversation between the candidates and less input from the moderators
There was a GOP debate a few cycles back, maybe 2012, where they tried something like the moderator setting up a topic, then they let the candidates respond to others for a while if they got mentioned in the order mentioned (otherwise just went down the row), then moved to another topic. The campaigns didn't like it because they thought the debate spent too much time on just a few topics rather than covering as many as possible.
edit: I also remember a Dem debate/forum from 2004 where they went down the row and the moderators just logged who got mentioned then said who would be getting responses, then they moved to the next topic. Worked a lot better than this ask only a couple people thing. And it was with like ten candidates too.