The CNBC Republican Presidential Debate takes place on Wednesday night, and Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush as well as the other GOP hopefuls will try to convince the American nation that they should be the next president. The GOP debate has a scheduled start time of 6 p.m. ET with a preliminary debate taking place. The main debate will take place at 8 p.m. ET and can be seen on TV on the CNBC network or online through live stream via the link below.

The evening will get kick started with a debate at 6 p.m. involving candidates Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham.

That will be followed by the main debate involving the top 10 Republican candidates, who take to the stage in Colorado. The candidates in the main debate include: Trump, Carson, Bush, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

Moderating tonight's debate will be CNBC's Carl Quintanilla, Beck Quick and John Harwood, with the event taking place at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The big news coming into tonight's debate is a change up in the GOP field. After weeks of Donald Trump seemingly untouchable at the top of the polls among Republicans, Ben Carson has surprised everyone by climbing ahead of Trump in a number of recent polls.

That could make tonight's debate even more interesting as Trump is sure to react in some way to the threat posed by Carson, and also Carson is likely to take some heat from moderators and other candidates wanting to show why Carson should be overlooked for them.

Two people in desperate need of big debate performances tonight are Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina - both of whom have disappointed in the polls over recent weeks. Bush's campaign has failed to gain traction and looks very weak at this point, where as Fiorina has failed to show results in the polls after two strong debate performances.

Whether tonight's debate will prove to be a turning point in their campaigns remains to be seen, but expect the spotlight to be firmly on Trump and Carson today.

Tonight's CNBC Republican Presidential Debate 2015 has a scheduled start time of 6 p.m. for the preliminary debate, and 8 p.m. ET for the main debate. The GOP debates can be watched on TV on the CNBC network.