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Members of the audience wait for the beginning of a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas, Oct. 13, 2015, in Las Vegas. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The night is finally here: The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2016 race was slated to unfold in Las Vegas Tuesday night on CNN. And the Twittersphere is sure to be ablaze with reactions and memes throughout the evening.

While voters, politicians and the media were excited to see Hillary Clinton face off with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the other three candidates -- former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee -- have received minimal attention. This could make for a quieter debate than the last Republican event, which saw loud and sometimes hilarious jabs among the 15 candidates competing in the undercard and main debates.

The two Republican debates that have already taken place this cycle each saw huge ratings, bringing in 24 million and 23 million viewers, respectively. But that was largely due to Donald Trump and the spectacle of such a large field. CNN has said it expects Tuesday’s Democratic debate to have a significantly smaller audience -- but that doesn’t mean the Internet will be any less active.

Often the reactions on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet can drive public opinion around which candidate “won” the debate at least as much as watching the debate itself. The Democratic candidates are not expected to tear into one another as much as Republicans did, but surprise attacks might come from those candidates not leading in the polls since they have less to lose.

And who knows? Perhaps even Vice President Joe Biden will show up and declare his candidacy in time to participate in the debate. He has already done well enough in the polls to meet CNN's debate criteria, and the network has an extra podium ready in case he announces his candidacy at the last minute before the debate starts. While it's extremely unlikely, that would make for an especially fun round of memes and Tweets.

As the Democratic debate takes place Tuesday night at the Wynn Las Vegas casino hotel, check back here for a live, updating collection of tweets throughout the evening.

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