Donald Trump campaign communications director Jason Miller tweets out a picture during the pre debate walk-through:

There is not a scintilla of doubt in my mind that CNN has a fully rehearsed game plan to ambush Donald Trump in an almost identical way as they did in the primary on February 19th, 2016 – SEE HERE –
The political ideologues who control the design of these heavily manufactured corporate operations have a vested interest in protecting the recipient of their investment, Hillary Clinton.  The questioners will not be random. The questions will not be random.

There is a well-versed design, including a scripted narrative, built into the entire format. Another CNN example was evidenced earlier in 2015 – SEE HERE – …but you already know that.
The severity/transparency of the CNN effort is directly tied to how desperate they are.  There is no longer an issue of credibility to be lost; the MSM has long ago passed the threshold of shark-jumping.
The only question remaining is: how well candidate Donald Trump can navigate the onslaught.