on march 26, 2008, the national football league and nbc agreed to move the kickoff time of a september 4 season-opening football game to 7:00 p.m. edt instead of 8:30 p.m. edt to accommodate the convention. the game ended relatively on time, at 10:01 p.m. edt, with nbc sports handing off to nbc news within moments of the end of the game. according to nielsen media research, 38.9 million americans watched mccain deliver his acceptance speech—a half million more than tuned in to see obama the previous week.