Faith's TV Blog

Faith Barlow
TV Logged On: 11/3/2008

- Monday was no different than any other day that I watch TV. My viewing habits usually consist of watching television shows that I have recorded using my DVR the day before. Usually I'll watch two or three shows that I have recorded and maybe a show that is currently on live TV. I rarely miss The Hills. It has become a ritual at my house (I have 4 other roommates that are girls) to be home at 9pm on Monday nights so that we can watch the episode from the week before and then watch the following premiere episode. But since I had missed the episode the week before, I was able to use the DVR to watch both shows back-to-back. I rarely ever pick up shows I haven't seen before, so Monday afternoon was the regular mix of shows that I watch. I had missed The Hills from a week ago and had missed Desperate Housewives and Army Wives from the Sunday before. I have pre-recorded all "my" shows so that if something comes up, I can simply rely on the DVR to record the show so that I can watch it on another day.

-I did not watch any television shows on any other source than my TV. Without my DVR though, I know for certain that the internet would be my source of catching shows that I had missed. ABC and Lifetime do a good job with posting the new full-episode immediantly after the show has aired. My roommate Courtney showed up around 2:30, just in time to watch the end of Desperate Housewives with me.

-Logging my TV use was probably the easiest assignment to date. I, oddly, make time to watch TV almost everyday even though I have a huge workload. I think it's pretty regular that I can get in about three hours of television a day. Almost every night there is a show that I watch; therefore, either that night or the following day I can count on watching at least two hours of television. I can usually squeeze in an old episode of "Project Runway" or "Made" in the middle of the day as well. I'm not exactly sure of the effectiveness of the Nielsen journal or other television journals. I'm assuming it allows stations to see at what times and shows the public is watching. I believe it depends on the loyalty of the people writing the journals; that they log their TV use accordingly. If the journal loggers are truthful in their entries than the journals serve their purpose and are more effective.