(Globo) The story behind this trend in Social Media today
02-10-2026
I’ll look up what’s driving the Globo-related conversation on social media today.The social-media spike around Globo is about the last-minute cancellation of the network’s presidential debate on the night of 1 October 2026, three days before the first round of Brazil’s election.TV Globo had scheduled the debate for 21:30 Brasília time, right after Jornal Nacional and in the usual novela slot. Under the rules it had agreed with the parties, it invited the candidates it judged mandatory: Lula (PT), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Augusto Cury (Avante). An earlier TSE decision had also brought in Romeu Zema (Novo). Lula told the network the day before that he would not attend and instead did a live interview on Flow Podcast in the same slot. The agreed rules said an absent candidate’s podium would stay empty, marked with a nameplate, and that the others could direct short questions at the missing candidate.Hours before airtime, two court orders changed that setup. Minister Estela (or Stella) Aranha of the TSE, acting on a request from Lula’s coalition, struck down the empty-podium rule and barred questions aimed at the absent candidate, even though the PT had signed the original rules. Separately, Justice Gilmar Mendes of the STF ordered the inclusion of Renan Santos, of the Missão party, who had not been on the original guest list. Flávio Bolsonaro then withdrew, calling the TSE order censorship and saying the press should be free and the election clean. Caiado, Cury and Zema were already at the studio.Globo said the two judicial notices interfered with rules previously agreed with the campaigns and, citing legal uncertainty, cancelled the debate. In its note it thanked the remaining candidates and said it was explaining the decision out of respect for viewers who had expected to hear proposals. The cancellation landed less than an hour before the scheduled start and immediately dominated conversation: critics of the courts framed it as judicial interference that emptied the debate of the two leading candidates; critics of Globo and of the leading campaigns treated the episode as evidence that the frontrunners preferred to avoid a full confrontation, and that the network folded once the format was rewritten. Renan Santos’s forced inclusion, Lula’s choice of a podcast over the debate, and Flávio’s last-minute exit all became separate flashpoints in the same thread.