I’m determined to cut back on my television consumption. I watch too much and waste too much in front of the boob tube. So I’m cutting back to three hours, all pre-scheduled.
That’s it. No more. Except for maybe football, but that doesn’t count. 
How about you, are you cutting back?
– IG
Yeah. I’m cutting down. Only Nova, Frontline, POV, Mystery! (sometimes), Great Performances, Nature, American Masters, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, South Park, Pac-10 football, Big 10/12 (whatever) football and whoever is playing Notre Dame on the hopes of seeing them lose, the Thursday nite game on ESPN (tonights was great!).
Oh, and Nevada if its televised.
But other than that, NOTHING! Except King of the Hill and Law and Order (back to back!)
I can’t. It keeps me company while I am quilting which is all evening.
I’ll probably be watching MORE since the days are getting shorter.
My Tivo saves shows I like and I watch whatever I’m in the mood for.
I’m way ahead of you. Studio 60, Lost, Survivor. Oh, and Heroes. Blast. That’s four hours.
I didn’t intentionally cut down on TV viewing, but I found that I did cut down after I got a Tivo. My TV watching used to fall into two categories: watching TV because I want to watch TV now (during dinner, when I’m too tired to do anything else, etc) and watching TV because something I want to watch is on. Since I can watch anything from the Tivo at any time, those two are now the same, and I watch less TV overall.
I don’t actually watch TV a lot, but it’s on a lot. I use it as background noise while working on the computer at home.
I’m the same way. If I’m home I usually have the decorating channel on.
The only shows I really watch are Project Runway, Top Chefs and 24, and the shows on HBO which are all on Sunday night.
The rest I wait until they come out on DVD.
I think I need TiVo. I’ve watched a few good shows this season but I know I’ll never remember when they’re on.
Nope. Not much else to do between 8-11, since I have two kids that have to be in bed around 8:30 for school the next morning. If anything, I wish there were more things on during prime time that I wanted to watch.
All I watch now are The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, and Venture Bros. (with Studio 60 and Heroes as “maybes” and Saturday Night Live if I’m home and awake). In January, my beloved Scrubs, 24, and The Shield will return, and Venture Bros. will be on another long hiatus after three more episodes.
If I absolutely had to, I could pare it down to The Simpsons, Prison Break, House & Criminal Minds. 3 1/2 hours.
I am so with you on this…I can’t wait!!! Watching the “webisodes” on Sci Fi Channel stoked me even more!
I must check out Shark, then. But since I also watch House for the “Hugh Laurie is sexy as hell” quotient I might not like it as much.
Whew!!! Good to know!
I’m probably watching more TV now that I have in previous years, probably because I have my DVR. I still need to watch Heroes, and I’m also recording Studio 60, The Nine and Boston Legal. Plus I also want to check out 30 Rock and Eureka.
Could TV be getting…gulp…better??
Just got rid of HBO since Deadwood was done with, so now I am down to House, and South Park when I can stay awake to catch it. I don’t ever use the TV as background noise, since I dearly love the silence which falls over the house when both sons are out and it’s just the cat and I, curled up on my bed with a book. This doesn’t happen often enough, of course. But wouldn’t miss a moment of it when it does!
I do go to a lot of movies, and Netflix voraciously too (has “Netflix” become a verb yet or is that only in my mind?), so I suppose I am not missing too much “video” time.
–Beck
Starting next Friday:
Prison Break
Battlestar Galactica
Office / Earl
Hopefully, something will be on break when 24, The Sopranos and The Shield start.
Fortunately, I don’t limit myself to 3 hours. More like 6 plus sports.
Maybe an hour, if I feel like a Simpsons rerun or two on the weekend.
Cutting back? No. It is football season and it is the only sport I enjoy and the only reason I have cable.
When it is not football season, I rarely watch more than 2 hours a week anyway.
I haven’t watched TV in over 5 years.
After sampling all the new TV shows, this is what my list looks like:
House
Boston Legal
Lost
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Mythbusters
Heroes
Shark
Smith
I had high hopes for Shark, but the writing is letting Mr. Woods down. He’s awesome as usual but man, the writing on this show is weak. The courtroom scenes are unbelievable, with Deux Ex Machina endings and implausible manoeverings, the dialog is cliched, and every time the daughter is on the screen the plot grinds to a screeching halt.
Too bad, because James Woods deserves better.
Smith is another show I had high hopes for - a stylish crime drama with Ray Liotta? What’s not to like? Well, it’s slowly paced, has weak dialog, and just uninteresting. The most annoying thing for me is that these are sophisticated, high-tech thieves, but none of that comes across on screen. There’s a really, really interesting show buried in there somewhere. They could make good stories detailing capers, coming up with clever and realistic ways to break into things, cat-and-mouse stuff, etc. You know like Mission Impossible for Bad Guys, or the 70’s movie Thief with James Caan, which was compelling because it was done so believably.
Instead, we’ve got soap opera plots and the heists have all the subtlety and sophistication of your average wrestling match. It lost me this week, and it’s off the DVR rotation.
I find I spent a lot of my TV watching time with Discovery HD and PBS HD. I wish there was more programming, but what there is is great.
I watch one to six movies a week via Netflix and may pop in a disc of *Buffy the Vampire Slayer *or *Firefly *from my DVD sets but otherwise don’t watch TV at all. Most of my free time is spent reading (although that’s generally during lulls at work) or surfing the internet.