Yup, it looks like Americans are watching more TV than ever. Which must really tick off the makers of My Own Worst Enemy, The Ex-List, and Dirty Sexy Money.How much is more than ever? The average American - Joe TV, if you will - watches 142 hours a television a month, according to a new study from Nielsen Media. That's four or five hours a day for each of us (and if that number is accurate, then I watch about 320 hours of TV a month). As for watching shows at another time, whether via DVRs or online, that's up 50% from last year. We Americans love our TV, though as The L.A. Times says maybe more people were watching this year because of the election and The Olympics.
Another reason why all of the numbers are up is because so many homes have more than one TV in the house.
Of course, this is just more fodder for the "TV is bad for you!" crowd. We here at TV Squad think that everyone should watch TV as much as possible and then come here and talk about it. Just make sure you also exercise, stay happy, have a social life, and eat some carrots once in a while.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-25-2008 @ 4:18PM
chadwick said...
Those numbers are insane. I did a rough estimate and I watch about 90 hours and that's during the fall and winter. Summer? About half I bet. One word...bikini.
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11-25-2008 @ 4:23PM
hub said...
Of course people are watching more television. With the economy in the crapper and gas prices formerly spiking, people are staying home more. What do people do when they stay home more? Bingo.
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11-25-2008 @ 7:14PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
I predicted that this study was coming a few weeks ago. Every time there are a bunch of cancellations and everyone starts bitching about the corrupt Nielsen system, out comes a study from Nielsen saying we're watching all this tv and everything is great in tvland. Nielsen is full of shit. Of course they are gonna say all that bullshit. They don't want to lose all that network tv revenue and all the power of deciding all those billions in tv ad money. It's amazing to me that the dipshit network execs still believe Nielsens bullshit studies and their extremely bullshit ratings data.
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11-25-2008 @ 8:04PM
Michael said...
well said your comment should be up at the top I'm giving you a thumbs up
11-26-2008 @ 8:30AM
Donna said...
Well, let's see. I do watch the Big Bang Theory, but I turn off the TV again at 7:30 (Central time) after its over.
I watch Survivor and The Amazing Race. That's pretty much it, unless I have some reason to tune into a local newscast or if we're under a severe weather watch or something. (Once in a great while I watch Nova or Secrets of the Dead.)
So, I'm not sure where I stand in all this.
(Although, I admit, I did watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving last night, and I do plan to watch Polar Express on Friday night.)
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