Still, he maintained in a Time magazine interview the Dallas gathering won the ratings battle anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did a convention that had 107 million views, and it stupidly was put opposite the NFL opening, and we got more views,\u201d Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview<\/a>. \u201cThey got 25 million. We got 107. Very stupid thing to do, but we did it. Somebody tell you, some person did it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump delivered a nearly two-hour address<\/a> on the convention\u2019s opening night that coincided with the first game of the NFL season between the Seattle\u00a0Seahawks and New England Patriots.<\/p>\n CNN reported that the Seahawks-Patriots contest drew more than 25 million viewers, significantly more than the roughly three million viewers who watched Trump\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n Most networks decided not to air wall-to-wall coverage of the convention, but Trump\u2019s opening night speech was shown live on Fox News,\u00a0Newsmax and NewsNation, according to CNN.<\/p>\n A Thursday night NFL game also beat Trump\u2019s much briefer closing remarks<\/a> on the convention\u2019s second and final night. The unusual midterm convention was Trump\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n His allies have defended the higher figure he cited by\u00a0highlighting digital streams<\/a> and clips circulated online. Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft\u00a0called the convention \u201ca massive success\u201d that energized Republican voters.<\/p>\n