Theresa May could take part in a Question Time-style televised question and answer session with voters after ruling out a head-to-head debate with rivals during the general election campaign.
Ms Sturgeon tweeted: "If PM doesnt have the confidence to debate her plans on TV with other leaders, broadcasters should empty chair her and go ahead anyway".
"We won't be doing the television debates", May, the Conservative leader, said matter-of-factly in a live BBC morning radio interview.
And the Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood - whose profile received a huge boost from her involvement in two of the 2015 broadcasts - said: "Theresa May should be "empty-chaired" if she doesn't show up to any planned TV debates".
John McDonnell told Sky News that live debates during the Labour leadership contest had helped transform Mr Corbyn into "a candidate who could win" - and claimed the Prime Minister was anxious about history repeating itself in the General Election.
A number of senior politicians - including Nigel Farage and Nicola Sturgeon - lined up once again in the run up to the 2015 election, while many more took part in EU Referendum debates organised by a series of media outlets a year ago.
ITV has confirmed it intends to hold a leaders' debate ahead of the snap election on 8 June, but has not provided any details of the format.
Clegg's performance helped propel his party to a coalition government with May's predecessor David Cameron - who shied away from directly debating the opposition during his 2015 campaign.
'Mother of all Marches' Blasts Failure of Socialism in Venezuela
We want elections to get Maduro out, because he's destroyed this country", said protester Ingrid Chacon, a 54-year-old secretary. The oil-exporting country suffers from Soviet-style shortages of food and consumer goods and triple-digit inflation.
Debates held in the past two British election campaigns, however, were viewed by millions, making them must-see TV for voters and must-attend events for leaders.
When asked by Sky News after a campaign event in Bolton whether she would reconsider taking part in televised debates, Mrs May said: "I'm going to be campaigning out and around every community in the country".
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon argued that TV debates should go ahead without Mrs May.
"That's what I have always believed in, it's what I still believe and I still do it - as Prime Minister, as a constituency MP, I still go out and knock on doors in my constituency".
While Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron accused May of running "scared", adding: "The British people deserve to hear party leaders set out their plans and debate them publicly".
"Well, I say to Theresa May, who said this election was about leadership, come on and show some".
'It is a unsafe policy, staying above the fray when you are saying the country's coming together and we are united on this Brexit issue, and when she knows a lot of Remainers still have a lot to say and are not going to shut up and may not vote the way she wants.
The last series of debates in 2015 took months of fraught negotiations between political parties and broadcasters toagree a timetable.
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