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.
Mr. Trump’s remarks, scheduled for around 9 p.m. Eastern time, will coincide with the first game of the N.F.L. 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 Mr. 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 N.F.L. opener.
The Republican gathering in Dallas this week, engineered by Mr. Trump as a party-boosting spectacle ahead of the midterm elections, is likely to struggle to match the mass audiences that the traditional nominating conventions achieve in presidential election years.
ABC, CBS and NBC say they have no plans to pre-empt prime time 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, including The New York Times, 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 Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance. A spokesman for Newsmax said that the channel would air the most newsworthy portions — about 25 percent of the proceedings, he estimated.
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