TV Journal

Deeadra Piper
Watch Date: 11.05.08

The day I logged my TV activity was not really reflective of my typical viewing habits. In terms of the amount of TV watched, there wasn't much change, but what I watched and when I watched it was quite different.

Most days, I watch television during the afternoon or early evening. I usually tune in to the Game Show Network around 2pm to catch episodes of Family Feud, Lingo, and Chain Reaction. (Gmae shows keep my mid sharp). Sometimes, I'll turn to NBC at 3 o'clock if the channel guide mentions an appearance by a celebrity I like on Ellen. Between 5 and 7, the TV is turned to Noggin, a Nickelodeon channel for young kids, so my babies can watch...but they aren't really paying much attention. The last show I watch each day is the Colbert Report at 7:30 on Comedy Central, which I try to never miss.

On the day that I logged, everything was out of whack. I didn't come home until 7:30 and, to my disgust, my husband was watching The Mummy Returns on FX. I watched with him for about 30 minutes, then sugested we change the channel because I dislike movies like that. Nothing appealing was on, so we tuned in to House of Payne on TBS to see if it had gotten any better since the last time I watched-it hadn't. George Lopez, South Park, and Chocolate News were good at making me laugh for an hour and a half.

Around 10, when I'm usually in bed, we watched a recorded episode of Vh1's Real Chance at Love, which we record each week so that we never miss. It airs past my bedtime, so I usually catch it on the weekends. That's part of my shameful, trashy TV secret because it's a reality dating show that is a spinoff of a spinoff (I Love NY, Flavor of Love). We fast-forwarded through the commercials and paused a lot, so we watched in about 50 minutes rather than an hour. The last ten minutes of my night were spent watching a rerun of The Colbert Report until 11:00pm.

I wish I could have watched my regular game shows on GSN, but it doesn't bother me that I missed them because they air every day, even weekends.

Since I had such a busy day before I started watching TV, I didn't get the opportunity to watch any internet TV or anything at any bars or restuarants. Besides my husband, my kids and my brother-in-law were present when I looged the shows, but no one was really watching except my husband and I.

It was interesting to log what I watched because I did find that everything didn't fit nicely into 15 minute increments, especially when something is on the DVR and I skip the commercials. I was well aware before this experiment how much TV I watched so there were no surprises there. As far as reliability goes, I don't think this is the most reliable way to monitor TV show viewers because my logging didn't happen on a typical day, and there's no way to tell if one's day will be typical. It's a hit or miss system.