Balloon debate

A Balloon Debate (sometime called raft debate) is a debate in which a number of speakers attempt to win the approval of an audience. It takes its name from the hypothetical situation of being in a hot-air balloon which is too heavy and rapidly loosing height. Each speaker has to make the case why they should not be thrown out of the balloon to save the remainder.

Typically speakers will take a famous person, a profession or other characters to speak on behalf of.

Modern television has adopted this style, with individuals making their own cases. The first of this genre is probably the Big Brother format of television shows.