I watch a lot of TV. At least, I thought I did.

Of course, it’s my job as a TV critic to do just that; there are always new shows to review, ongoing favourites to recap, and cruddy ones to rip on and warn you not to waste your time with.

Turns out I am a wimp compared to American TV viewers.

The Nielsen Company, which tracks viewing trends as well as tabulating ratings for networks and advertisers, announced this week the average American spent “four hours and 59 minutes a day on average in front of the TV” during the 2008-09 season.

This amount — measured every September to September — is up four minutes from the previous year, says Nielsen, and up 20 per cent from a decade ago.

That means that average Americans watch 35 hours of TV a week. That’s the same amount of time per week that some people spend working in a career.

The research company also reported that households — families — watch an average of “eight hours and 21 minutes a day.”

Curious, I put out a call to BBM in Canada for similar numbers. I still haven’t heard anything back from them, but in the meantime, here’s how much television I watch per day:

Mondays – House, Top Chef and Heroes (three hours)
Tuesdays – Bones and The Biggest Loser (three hours)
Wednesdays – America’s Next Top Model, CSI: NY, Glee and Modern Family (three-and-a-half hours)
Thursdays – Community, CSI, FlashForward, Fringe, The Mentalist and Supernatural (six hours)
Fridays – Law & Order and Flashpoint (two hours)
Saturdays – screeners for work, and random series on PBS (let’s say four hours)
Sundays – The Amazing Race (one hour)

So far, that’s 22.5 hours spent watching TV. If you throw in series that I need to watch so that I can recap them for work (American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Survivor), you could add on another five hours, bringing me to almost 28 hours, still far less than the 35 Nielsen is recording.

Nielsen has a couple of reasons why the viewing numbers are creeping up, suggesting that households now have multiple TVs in them, meaning hubby can watch hockey in the den instead of being forced to watch Grey’s Anatomy on the couch, and there are more channels to choose from for niche audiences.

The recession may have something to do with it as well. People are choosing to spend nights at home in front of the TV instead of shelling out cash for ever-increasing movie ticket prices.

So, is the increased viewing a good or bad thing? Are we becoming more lazy and less intelligent? How do you feel about this study?

When BBM gets back to me, I’ll report their findings, but in the meantime, how much TV do you watch in a week? greg@tvguide.ca

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Greg has been a fan of TV since he was five years old, eating dry cereal in front of the TV with his sisters watching Sesame Street, and scrambling downstairs after dinner to watch Polka Dot Door. His influential teen years were taken up by equal parts of The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Magnum P.I. and Friday Night Videos as well as daily doses of Toronto Rocks and the Power Hour on MuchMusic.

He is continually fascinated with the television process from idea to pilot episode and network pickup, development and casting right through to air, and likes all genres of TV.

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