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Dec. 9 -- In a special hour-long edition of Nightline tonight, the nine Democratic contenders meet in their ninth televised debate, moderated by Ted Koppel. And just when you thought the Democratic field was lacking excitement, Al Gore decides to get involved and, surprisingly, has electrified the campaign.

Tonight Ted Koppel will moderate a debate with the nine candidates in the Democratic field. The debate will take place at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. New Hampshire, of course, is the home of the first presidential primary and historically people have put a lot of stock in the results of that primary. Conventional wisdom was that you had to win the New Hampshire primary in order to win the nomination. Bill Clinton put paid to that notion when he came second in New Hampshire in 1992 and relaunched his campaign as the "comeback kid".

This year the candidates from neighboring states, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, have been slugging it out ahead of the pack in New Hampshire. In recent weeks Dean has been ahead in the polls, and that was before the news that former Vice President (and winner of the popular vote in 2000) Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean. The news electrified people in political circles. Why did Gore decide to do this now? Why Dean and not his former running mate Sen. Joseph Lieberman, or experienced Washington types like Sen. Kerry or Rep. Richard Gephardt? This debate was bound to focus on the front-runner Howard Dean, and the Gore endorsement is likely to be topic number one as they debate tonight. Does this high-profile endorsement signal a turning point for the other eight candidates, or does it matter at all?

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Ted Koppel will moderate the debate and will be joined by Scott Spradling, political reporter from our New Hampshire affiliate WMUR. You can see excerpted highlights in a special one-hour edition of Nightline tonight or the full debate on C-Span and WMUR in New Hampshire at 7 p.m. ET. It should be a lively debate. We hope you will join us.