Watch much? A study issued by Nielsen Media this week finds that American TV viewing hit an all-time high in May. Man, woman and child, we averaged 127 hours and 15 minutes in front of the set.
Suffering succotash! That’s a little over four hours per day.
Cumulatively, it’s like spending five days out of the month glued to the tube. (And that doesn’t even count the epic tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, which seemed to consume an additonal three days.)
These Nielsen findings really blew my mind (as Eric Burdon once mused on “Spill the Wine”).
Elevated viewing levels? Almost everyone I hear from tells me this was one of the most disappointing years for television since Howdy Doody hung up his chaps. Maybe we’re watching more but enjoying it less? Or else we’re a country that’s really desperate for diversion.
The same day the Nielsen results came out, another study from the University of Toronto reported that subjects who ate lunch while watching TV consumed 228 more calories than those who ate with the set off.
“One . . . conclusion is that eating while watching television overrides our ability to know when to stop eating,” wrote the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. I’ve certainly found that to be true. When I’m channel surfing, I tend to graze indiscriminately.
No wonder we have an obesity epidemic in this country. More TV viewing leads to more mindless eating. Forget the carbs; we need to go on a TV diet.
The networks are doing their part. They have us on David Copperfield rations. (“Another serving of ‘Knockout,’ sir?”) But it only seems to make us hungrier.
TV without borders.
The CBS summer series “Flashpoint,” which debuted July 10, makes a pretty good case for outsourcing TV production to other countries.
This Canadian series about a police tactical unit is clever, crisply paced and well acted. The cast includes Enrico Colantoni (so good as the dad on “Veronica Mars”), Hugh Dillon (the Canadian Bruce Willis) and Amy Jo Johnson (long ago, the Pink Ranger on “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”).
The pilot devoted a remarkable amount of time to examining the repercussions of violence. No wonder CBS dumped it at 10 p.m. EDT on Fridays where viewers couldn’t find it with MapQuest.
Hello, ladies.
Last week, the college football columnist for cited Kaitlin Olson of FX’s scabrous series, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” as his celebrity crush. Bold choice! But TV has a way of creating unusual sex symbols. Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live,” Mary Lynn Rajskub on “24,” Traylor Howard on “Monk,” Marge on “The Simpsons.” Just between us, I have to admit I always found Snoop (Felicia Pearson) on “The Wire” alluring . . . in a lethal sort of way.
