All 17 of the Republican candidates in the 2016 presidential race will have a chance to show off their debate skills in either one of two televised debates on Fox News next week. However, only the top 10 candidates will go head-to-head in a prime time matchup.

Fox News announced that the seven GOP candidates who fail to make the cut for the Aug. 6 prime-time event will instead be featured in a one-hour debate at 5 p.m. EST, reports Fox News. The other 10 contenders -- who obtain the highest rates based on recent national polls -- will take part in a special two-hour debate, starting at 9 p.m. EST. The Fox News debate will be hosted in conjunction with Facebook and the Ohio Republican Party.

"Due to the overwhelming interest in the FOX News Facebook Debate Event Night on Aug. 6," said Michael Clemente, Fox News executive vice president, in a statement, "FOX News is expanding participation in the 5 p.m./ET debate to all declared candidates whose names are consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls, as recognized by Fox News."

As a result, this insures that low-polling candidates like Carly Fiorina, former New York Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Lindsey Graham and the most recent contender to join the race, Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, will not go totally under the radar.

According to a Politico analysis of the latest national polling, if the debates were held today, the prime-time participants would be Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Rick Perry.

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Rick Santorum and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal would be relegated to the 5 p.m. EST debate, along with Fiorina, Pataki and Graham.

"Although we are relaxing one component of our entry criteria - the requirement that candidates must score 1 percent or higher in an average of five most recent national polls -- all other components of the criteria remain in effect for the 5 p.m./ET debate," reads the Fox News statement.