President Trump prides himself on his television ratings. But on Wednesday night, his speech at the Republicans’ midterm convention will confront one of the few forces in American culture that reliably draws a bigger audience than the president: the National Football League.
Trump’s remarks, scheduled for around 9 p.m. Eastern time, will coincide with the first game of the NFL season, a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, which is set to air on NBC. (On Thursday night, when Trump is scheduled to speak again, a San Francisco 49ers-Los Angeles Rams game will be streaming on Netflix.)
The football games are likely to siphon away millions of viewers who might otherwise watch the Republican gathering. Roughly 28 million people tuned in for last year’s NFL opener.
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The Republican gathering in Dallas this week, engineered by Trump as a party-boosting spectacle before the midterm elections, is likely to struggle to match the mass audiences that the traditional nominating conventions achieve in presidential election years.
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A general view of Lumen Field prior to the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots Wednesday.
A general view of Lumen Field prior to the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots Wednesday.
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ABC, CBS and NBC say they have no plans to preempt primetime shows for Wednesday or Thursday’s festivities, as they typically do for the quadrennial party conventions. CNN and MS NOW said they would air their usual evening programs and pivot to Dallas if news warranted.
For those wanting to follow along in Dallas, countless streaming services and online outlets will carry a live feed. On cable, C-SPAN is planning full coverage, while simultaneously airing speeches by Democratic candidates on C-SPAN2.
Fox News is airing a special two-hour “Hannity” on Wednesday and Thursday beginning at 9 p.m. Several of the network’s other programs, including Bret Baier’s 6 p.m. newscast, have relocated to the American Airlines Center in Dallas for the event.
NewsNation is planning to air speeches by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. A spokesperson for Newsmax said the channel would air the most newsworthy portions -- about 25% of the proceedings, he estimated.
This article originally appeared inThe New York Times.