TV Watching

[WOM]

Be honest: how much/how often do you watch? 7 nights a week, 7 til 11? Hardly ever? Don't even own a TV?

[Ginger Yellow]

TV Watching

Daily Show every day (when it's on, anyway - why must More 4 leave out the Friday episode?). Likewise Colbert, but on t'internet.

A bit of Newsnight.

A few sci-fi series, again when they're on (Dr Who, BSG, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes)

The one good comedy show a year the BBC/C4 deign to produce.

One or two documentaries a week, mostly science/nature related.

[JtS]

TV Watching

It's picked up recently, this is related to the missus being pregnant and preferring to lie on the sofa of an evening. Watching is sporadic tho'.

[WOM]

TV Watching

It's fair to say ours is on 7 evenings a week (unless we're at a concert).
On around 8 or 8:30. Off at 11.
On for 15 or 20 minutes for cartoons in the morning.
We usually get into a show for 2 or 3 years and then stop watching it once the 'same old same old' sets in: see 'House', 'Desperate Housewives', 'Criminal Minds', 'Prison Break', etc. No sitcoms. Lots of docs.

[Incandenza]

TV Watching

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Daily Show every day (when it's on, anyway - why must More 4 leave out the Friday episode?). Likewise Colbert, but on t'internet.

There isn't a Friday Daily Show episode, except for these last two weeks during the convention, so they could cover the Thursday events.

To answer the question, about 3 or 4 hours a day. A lot of junk--TMZ, real estate shows on HGTV, etc.

Here's my Tivo list:
Daily Show
Jon & Kate Plus 8
Pardon The Interruption (ESPN)
The Office
Frontline if it sounds good.

Top Chef when it's on.

[treibeis]

TV Watching

I haven't had a television set in the house since I moved out of my parents' place in 1984. I sometimes go to the boozer round the corner on a Sunday to watch the crime series Tatort. On the rare occasions that I can be bothered, I go to another boozer round the corner on a Saturday evening to watch the Bundesliga round-up.

[Mumpo]

TV Watching

I probably spent too much time ploughing through the freeview channels, searching for something worth watching. And there very rarely is, of course.

Apart from that I have a roster of half a dozen or so programmes in any week that I don't like to miss - I don't watch much speculatively. Thinking about it, I rarely sit in front of the telly for more than half an hour at a time. I'm too fidgety.

[WOM]

TV Watching

Prompted by treibeis' response, I should have also asked: if you're not a tv watcher, what do you spend that time doing?

[Incandenza]

TV Watching

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

"I'm not an elitist," Green said. "It's just that I'd much rather sculpt or write in my journal or read Proust than sit there passively staring at some phosphorescent screen."

"If I need a fix of passive audio-visual stimulation, I'll go to catch a Bergman or Truffaut film down at the university," Green said. "I certainly wouldn't waste my time watching the so-called Learning Channel or, God forbid, any of the mind sewage the major networks pump out."

[Mumpo]

TV Watching

Onion article raises slight smile, fails to significantly amuse

[treibeis]

TV Watching

Prompted by treibeis' response, I should have also asked: if you're not a tv watcher, what do you spend that time doing?

Weekends: Playing football; watching football; sitting in the boozer.

Weekdays: Working; thinking about going running; sometimes actually going running; sitting in the boozer.

[Reed John]

TV Watching

I spend a shockingly large amount of time sitting idly flipping the channels hoping to find something to watch even though I've already flipped through everything several times and know that there won't be anything good for at least another 30 minutes. I also have it on in the background while I idly surf the web.

The only show I'm sufficiently interested in enough to make sure I watch every week is Battlestar Galatica. However, if I had HBO still, I'd watch Entourage and, based on seeing episode 1 at my parents' house, True Blood.

I'd say only about 25% of my TV-on time is spent with me really paying attention to it.

Although, when I'm at my parents house I watch a lot of it because they have HD and I don't. I'm still mesmerized by HD.

[WOM]

TV Watching

I do the same. Mentally I'm scrolling through looking for a "10": rare, unseen Sopranos. Documentary on ska/punk, '76-'81.
Nothing.
A second scroll and I'm hoping for a "9": WWII doc with unseen footage. Something with Hitler on vacation, or some tunnels somewhere.
A third scroll and I'd settle for an "8": a Golden Era Seinfeld or Simpsons.
Eventually you're watching "Whatever Happened To..." about the doctor, the bartender, and the girl who replaced Julie the cruise director on The Love Boat.
57 Channels and Nothing On? More like 500 channels...

[Gerontophile]

TV Watching

More like 750 here.

I Sky+ the baseball, but at the moment, sod all else. I generally have sport on in the background (like now Setanta Sports News). I watch Dave or Paramount Comedy when I go offline (about 10pm) for a couple of hours, and thats it. However, he is in the next room watching soap and assorted Wire, Prison Break, Dexter etc, which I didnt get into from the start.

[Guest]

TV Watching

I watch TV for a living, so I guess it's difficult to know what I'd do if I didn't. Certainly I am useless at following series at home; last time I managed to watch all of one was the Sarah Connor thing and I only succeeded at that because it was short and Virgin kept repeating them.

Oh and I watch the Tudors every week but mainly for shallow and obvious reasons.

But at work I'll often have to watch a whole series in a week or two and often multiple times. Sometimes this is great like being 6 months ahead with the Wire or Dexter or Entourage or Curb. Sometimes it's not so great, like Katy Brand's Only Got Half An Idea (And It's a Crap One) But Has Stretched that To Fill 6 Hours, Making You Wonder Who on Earth She Is Fucking at ITV. Etc.

Oh I like Masterchef. But I forget to watch it mostly.

And also when my husband was still here we used to watch a lot of Family Guy, because it's on 2 different channels at night so there's always a couple to see.

[Reed John]

TV Watching

The Simpsons would usually count as something I actually want to watch, unless it's a mediocre episode that I've already seen many times.

My default options for when I feel like I want the TV on but there's nothing on I really want to watch and I don't feel I have the mental alertness to follow the plot of a film I have from Netflix or read a book (i.e. most of my waking hours)

Anthony Bourdain, Bizarre Foods, Iron Chef America or Bobby Flay Showdown if it's something I like like last week he did one on Philadelphia pretzels.

Dirty Jobs (although sometimes I actually properly watch this)

Mythbusters (although sometimes I actually properly watch this)

Family Guy rerun

Random Premiership game replay on Comcast Sports

Seinfeld

SportsCenter

Baseball Tonight

ESPN's NFL show

Football or baseball game between two teams I don't really care about

Rerun of a film I've already seen like Spider-man or Godfather or Animal House

Pathetic and depressing really.

[Reed John]

TV Watching

What is it that you do Lyra that requires you to watch all of that crap?

[Guest]

TV Watching

Sometimes it's not so great, like Katy Brand's Only Got Half An Idea (And It's a Crap One) But Has Stretched that To Fill 6 Hours, Making You Wonder Who on Earth She Is Fucking at ITV. Etc.

Oof. Sympathy there. I watch TV for a living too but I only have to watch it once.

[Guest]

TV Watching

Reed, DVD subtitles.
Horse, what do you do?

[Guest]

TV Watching

TV critic. (Some of the time. TV journalist in other ways - editing, reporting etc - also.)

[Reed John]

TV Watching

Wow. Wouldn't you like to do something where you don't have to look at so much shit, like maybe a sewer repairman or a shit shoveler?

[Crusoe]

TV Watching

I have the TV switched on a lot, mostly for background noise. It's probably on from about 7pm to 11.30pm week nights, and it'll be on most of the time I'm in the house at weekends. I rarely make an effort to watch particular shows - every few days I scan ahead on the TV guide and record films I want to see (to watch at leisure later), occasionally some comedies to watch during dinner (Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, Reaper, Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, Futurama, etc).

[JtS]

TV Watching

Big Bang Theory is shit, but good.

[Gangster Octopus]

TV Watching

Thank you Mr Hoyle.

[Guest]

TV Watching

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

Wow. Wouldn't you like to do something where you don't have to look at so much shit, like maybe a sewer repairman or a shit shoveler?

Ha, no I don't have to look at too much shit. I'm lucky in that I work for quite an upmarket/conservative magazine, I guess. I watch Dexter, The Sopranos etc on work time, and see a lot of good stuff I wouldn't normally bother to watch, eg recently, God On Trial (see TV forum) and a great documentary series called Blood & Guts about the history of surgery, specifically how dangerous operations progressed from killing the patient to saving them, thanks to crazy pioneering doctors.