Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2008 > July > 08 > Entry
7/8: TV viewing still going up, up, up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite the Web, the iPod, textmessaging, et. al, people are watching more and more TV.
Nielsen estimates that the average American watched a whopping 127 hours of TV in May, up from 121 hours in May, 2007. That comes out to more than four hours a day.
Check out this New York Times story for more details.
I’m sure most people who “self report” TV watching would seldom admit that they watch that much TV. That’s an insane number if you think about it.
Online video viewing is up, too, though still relatively modest. The average person watched two hours and 19 minutes in May. That’s only 1/50th the amount of time vs. regular TV.
And surprisingly, mobile phone/iPod TV viewing is even greater: an average of 3 hours and 15 minutes a month.
Also, TV Guide provided some stats on the broadcast networks and the average age of various TV shows. CBS had the oldest median age (54), followed by ABC (50), NBC (49), Fox (44) and the CW (34).
The youngest TV show on NBC is “The Office” at 34 while oldest is “Dateline NBC” with 57.
The youngest TV show on ABC is “Supernanny” at 41 while oldest is “Dancing With the Stars (Results) at 55.
The youngest TV show on CBS is “How I Met Your Mother” at 45 while oldest is “60 Minutes” at 60. (That means half the viewers are over the age of 60!)
The youngest TV show on Fox is “American Dad” at 29, while oldest is “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” at 50.
The youngest TV show on the CW is “One Tree Hill” at 26 while oldest is “Smallville” at 38.
Comments
By Lily Toad
July 8, 2008 3:04 PM | Link to this
What is the obsession with age? Don’t you know the population is aging? Why is it surprising that over half the viewers of 60 minutes are over 60? This just shows that people over 60 are interested in news oriented shows as opposed to comedies.
By JTD
July 8, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this
Gas prices keeping everyone at home, huh?
By Deirdre
July 8, 2008 5:20 PM | Link to this
Rodney…I resent the exclamation mark after “over the age of 60” :-)
My favorite show of those listed is The Office. Does that make me younger than my years?
In case inquiring minds want to know…I’m somewhere between younger than springtime and older than dirt.
I kinda agree with JTD…TV is going to get a big boost from high gas prices.