This is the part that people say that I don't get.
Fox already had the ratings by virtue of the this being the first debate, and with Trump in it. The nature of the questions themselves had nothing to do with getting ratings, the eyeballs were already there.
What they did was let their egos and hubris get the best of them during this unprecedented opportunity. Unless they thought these antics would entice and retain first-time viewers, they forgot their mandate and treated the debate as an extended Sunday show.
-PJ
I guess your further examination of motives is worth considering actually. It might just have been self-aggrandizement for the respective moderators.
IMO, it was a disgusting display worthy of Candy Crowley.
I don't know, but have suspected for a while, that Fox News might be using a GOPe/Karl Rove strategy to change the mix of its audience. Be less conservative, and lose some conservative viewers, and try to lure more moderate and center/left viewers.
Others have expressed the same thoughts on FR threads. And there are the stories that the Murdoch sons are more leftist then Rudolph and they are moving Fox more to the left.