A behind the scenes look from a New York Times Blog interview of David Bohrman, the Washington bureau chief of CNN. Bohrman was the chief coordinator for the debate.

From the blog:

“We vetted people if we had any real doubt about them,” he said. CNN did this in the case of a student who said in his video that he had earned a 3.0 grade point average in high school but had not cracked a book. CNN checked with the school and learned that he did, indeed, have a 3.0 GPA. Alas, his question did not make the final cut.

The team also discovered that perhaps 20 supporters of Senator Joseph Biden had all submitted videos asking the exact same question. Mr. Cooper gently chided the Biden camp at the beginning of the debate for trying to manipulate the process.

Some celebrities from the entertainment industry submitted videos, but Mr. Bohrman would not reveal who they were. He said he nixed them, as well as those from public officials, because he wanted to keep the debate for “real” people.