CNN on Thursday night announced who would be on the main stage at its GOP presidential debate next week and as had been expected, it is Carly Fiorina who will join the first tier candidates and not Rick Perry.

As the Tribune's Abby Livingston wrote, Fiorina and Perry were both relegated to the undercard debate at last month's first televised encounter among the GOP presidential hopefuls. But with the former Hewlett Packard CEO outperforming Perry in the forum, she was able to move up while the former Texas governor "has since faced serious financial struggles in his second bid for the presidency."

CNN also noted on Thursday that Fiorina was the only candidate to take advantage of a rules change that allowed a candidate who moved into the Top 10 in presidential poll performance after the August debate to qualify for next week's debate.

The Sept. 16 debate will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.