Javier G.'s TV blog post

Javier Garcia 10/5

1. Tonight I started off with the Daily Show and half of the Colbert Report. After that I went home and caught the Simpsons, followed by ABC News, and finally followed by South Park. This ends up being a mixed night of television for me, I usually have to watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report on the internet because I don’t have cable. Also I usually don’t catch the Simpsons, but I watched it today because I knew ABC News was coming on afterwards. I occasionally watch ABC News at the late timeslot, but television news doesn’t provide me enough meat, so I don’t care too much if I miss it. I was eager to see it tonight though, because I wanted to bask a little longer in Barack Obama’s victory from last night. And I almost always catch the full block of South Park on Fox at midnight, it makes up for not paying for cable and missing out on Comedy Central. The only shows I missed out on were the late night showings of Law and Order and CSI Miami. I am somewhat a fan of those shows, but I don’t think I am as hardcore as some people. I don’t know what nights or what time they come on, I just know that they are on ABC and CBS. But I am fanatic enough to put off my homework to watch the two full episodes of Law and Order, and then immediately switch to CSI the moment that the credits roll on L&O(David Caruso is comically intense on the show). I got hooked on crime shows because I randomly caught one episode of NYPD Blue where Jimmy Smits was roughing up some skinheads and fighting prejudice, I was hooked on the genre after that. MATT SANTOS 4 PREZ!

2. Tonight was an unusual night because I saw the Daily Show and the Colbert Report over at my friend’s place, usually I have to watch it off of the Daily Show’s website. When I am over at my friend’s house we usually don’t have the TV on, we only make an exception for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

3. I think the process of recording my viewing habits was easy. I am not the type to change the channel when the commercials come on, I just turn down the volume, or else I will get wrapped up in another show and miss crucial scenes from my original show. I was a little surprised at having watched almost three hours of television, I would have thought my number would be lower. But I console myself with the fact that I am horribly inconsistent with my habits. I will watch the shows I mentioned if I turn the TV on, but I often forget to turn it on because I know I don’t pay for cable and it doesn’t enter my mind that I have shows that I am loyal to. I also use the bunny ears on my TV, which acts as another deterrent to watching it, sometimes I just don’t have the patience to adjust the ears. Overall, I think the journal is effective and reliable because there is a slight level of anonymity to it. People don’t have to worry about being judged in their social group for overloading on TV because only Nielsen will know their habits. Difficulty recording the shows watched wasn’t difficult for me because I had limited options and didn’t change the channel. But I can see how someone who constantly changes the channel might easily forget to record a lot of shows they watched.