That Rachel Maddow Debate Just Got Really Interesting

With the results of the Iowa caucus in -- sort of -- the stakes of Thursday's MSNBC Democratic debate in New Hampshire are even higher.

Out anchor Rachel Maddow will host alongside Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, with everything starting at 9 p.m. Eastern from the University of New Hampshire in Durham. And hopefully a winner will have been officially declared by then. Right now, as of Tuesday morning, Hillary Clinton had 701 delegates to Bernie Sanders' 697 -- and while her campaign's declaring victory, his has not conceded.

While co-anchoring caucus coverage Monday night, Maddow pointed out that Clinton and Sanders had essentially ended Iowa in a draw, and with Martin O'Malley dropping out, that means Thursday is the first head-to-head debate in a very tight race.

There was a big question over whether this debate would even happen. The Democratic National Committee originally hadn't scheduled any debate before the primary election in New Hampshire next Tuesday. Then Maddow started asking the candidates during interviews on her show whether they'd show up if someone hosted a debate. They seemed to say yes.

Then the DNC refused to sanction the new debate, which had Sanders saying he wouldn't join because the DNC could penalize them.

Over the weekend, though, the DNC relented and sanctioned the new debate.