folks at work yesterday. For me, it's probably about 10 hours per week. The only things I watch regularly are Question Time, HIGNFY, QI and Frozen Planet. I might watch the odd film or football / rugby match or documentary but that's about it. I rarely watch iPlayer because we have a woeful"broadband" connection.

I'd feel funny without a TV (Mrs. F would be distraught without access to the soaps) but I can't say I'd be upset if it wasn't there.

...two West Wings per evening. So about ten or eleven hours a week. Frozen Planet and Fresh Meat are the only things I've watched on proper telly in the last few weeks.

Now ask me about my internet usage. *kills self in face*

For me it would be:
Coronation Street
Currently: The Slap and Lifes too short
Masterchef
Come Dine with me - bit of light entertainment on a Sunday afternoon
Junior Apprentice

Occasionally BBC4 music programmes on a friday evening depending whether I am awake enough to watch them.

I left the room when Celebrity was on and frequently leave the room when wife/daughter are watching Americas Top Model - fortunately computer and music are in a separate room.

I reckon about 10 hours per week, though isn't it the case that people always underestimate how much TV they watch? Very rarely in real time, I use the PVR extensively and watch Lovefilm sourced films or box sets. About all I watch live is the rare live footy match. Real telly it's Grand Designs, music stuff on Beeb 4, the odd cop series, Daily Politics, Newsnight, Question Time. That's about it. Can't stand talent shows, house buying shows, anything involving Syephen Fry (which, let's face it, eliminated half of BBC output), cookery shows....it's all rubbish really isn't it? Used to be a Corrie fan and still have affection for it but there are too many episodes per week to stay with so gave it up. Other soaps, non merci. Still miss The Bill though!

Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and Friday night on BBC Four if it's worth watching. Oh, and QI XL. Little else. I do have the occasional weakness for Come Dine With Me – car crash TV at its finest.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks is still desperately clinging on for life, and trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator whilst doing so. Cilla presenting wasn't too painful this week but it took me a while to realise who "Secretive Fur" was.

Means that about the only things I watch live are Saturday evening staples - Harry Hill and The X Factor. I record, and sometimes even watch, QI, HIGNFY, Only Connect, True Blood, and several films a week.

basically anything set in a hospital. I sit with her but my attention wanders, usually to here. I would like to watch HIGNFY but she thinks Ian Hislop looks like a penis and will do her best to avoid it so I usually watch it on iplayer. I'm usually too knackered for Newsnight these days although I do like half an hour of BBC Breakfast in the morning when possible. We can stream Lovefilm into our TV so will often watch a movie. The children are addicted to The Simpsons and Futurama as well as Disney XD.

Despite what Bob correctly calls my "Wolfie Smith stylings" I am a hopeless southern middle-class git.

Also I'm effectively banned - my family are fed up with me shouting abuse at the telly when they are trying to watch something they know full well to be harmless shite

Probably too much. But it is my job.

Mostly mid-week as I work weekends. 80% of it will be recordings from the Tivo so I only watch what I'm interested in and don't just veg out to any old shite.

The usual suspects, Mad Men, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Fresh Meat, Frozen Planet, Horizon, Grand Designs, Californication, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, An Idiot Abroad, The Big C, 30 Rock, Later…, Modern Family, Southland, River Cottage, anything with Jamie Oliver, anything with Derren Brown, Seinfeld, assorted films and documentaries.

Put simply, I'd miss it. A lot!

but isn't the question what else do you do with your life ? Are you happy? Is it selective or just flipping channels till you hit the least awful thing. Is TV just filling a void, in lieu of (or as well as) food, alcohol, drugs.....Anyway, definitely too much - probably a couple of hours a day in the week and a bit more at weekends, so near or north of 20 I'd guess. And that's mostly selective timeshifting with the set top box. I rarely watch anything in real time, usually record and fit it in around the family.

Would it be reasonable to ask if music or movies in the same category of space fillers ? I guess there could be a distinction between space-filling and mood-modification.

I've always been jealous of my old school mate who almost never watched TV and was always doing something. Never did anything about it though. I'm just too lazy by half.

Only about 7 hours.... oh yes... then that's plus the football! We often watch 5 or 6 matches a week (the FPO is a fan as well). Normally we catch up with the long US serials in the summer while there's no footy on but we've subscribed to ESPN for the last two years and there's an awful lot of baseball on!

although one of those is usually something on DVD.

There's a great piece in the new Word with BBC TV scheduler Dan McGolpin who decides what BBC programmes go where and at what times. One of his tips is "Trust Data, Not Viewers" and he says at one point.

How (people) behave is often different from from how they say they behave. If you ask a friend what they've been watching , they might say, "Oh there's nothing on at the moment, so i've hardly watched anything", but the data will come through and you'll find that on average people have watched in excess of 20 hours of TV a week. What your friend means is that they have high expectations of TV, and expect to find a lot they actively like"

I love Rev. btw.

American Horror Story (Fast becoming the best thing on telly.)
Broadwalk Empire
Walking Dead
Misfits
Fresh Meat
Apprentice
Modern Family
Parks and Recreation
Community
The Office (US)
Bored to Death
X factor (which is Sky plus and can be watched in 5 mins tops.)
And lots of childrens TV. Some good (Peppa Pig!) Some bad. (Dora the ***** explorer.)

It really is the golden age of TV. Well American TV any way.

Was watching Fresh Meat and Only Connect, but they've finished. Now I only watch Strictly Come Dancing (and even that's on fast forward because I can't bear Brucie).

However, I spend WAY too much time messing around on the net.

a direct correlation between the number of TV channels I've brought into the house and the amount of TV I actually watch. The former has gone up dramatically, the latter in the opposite direction.

in which I seem to be a Freak of Nature these days.

I don't own a TV. No great moral reasons for this, I just couldn't be arsed to buy a new aerial for my portable, and I'm probably too poor at the moment to afford both a TV licence *and* strong drink.

Sigh. Sometimes I feel quite alien on here. *sulks*

Come Dine With Me Marathon on Saturday mornings whilst I'm coping with my hangover - 1 1/2 hours (The only program on TV worth watching, according to Alan Bennett)
Probably a bit of Bargain Hunt as well, to be honest - an hour
Probably a bit of Cash In The Attic after that, if I'm being entirely stright with you - an hour
The Simpsons 30m
Family Guy (I know) 30m
Life's Too short - 40m
Pawn Stars 30m
Storage Wars 30m

So about 7 hours a week, most of it downloaded and watched in bed. I'm far too knackered during termtime to watch anything more demanding, so I'll save up entire box sets for the holidays and watch em every day in 4 hour blocks - Curretly piled up Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy , Abbot And Costello, Laurel And Hardy, The Walking Dead, Louis Theroux, and Russ Meyer boxes.

... or sitting staring at that big rectangular thing in the corner. I suspect the latter, so would have to admit to being near the 20-hour mark. I think the only thing I watch in "real-time" is The Apprentice, everything else is time-shifted, if only to avoid adverts, though well over half of our viewing is DVDs or downloads of US shows.

I don't feel bad or ashamed about it, though I certainly wouldn't want to watch any more than I do right now, as I'm sure it would start to eat unduly into other activities...

We"obtain" the programmes we want from this interweb thingy.
Spanish TV is dire and all this Digital box/plasma flatscreen HD stuff confuses the hell out of me.
We spent the money on a really good monitor and we both like listening to music and reading so don't feel the need to spend 800 euros on something we'd never use.

CBeebies. Quite a lot at weekends.

Milkshake in the mornings during the week.

I hear the theme tunes to some programmes more than my own music. And see the presenters more than I see some of my friends.

Occasionally the BBC News channel, and some odds and sods like the Apprentice and the BBC4 friday night things. And Susanna Reid occasionally.

Aside from when there is live rugby on, all I consistently watch is QI and HIGNFY - and they are usually watched in bed after downloading from iPlayer.

Most of the TV watching in our house is kids TV.

A lot less now that Only Connect and Later with Jools have come to the end of their run.

I think it is just Uni Challenge, Terra Nova, QI, HIGNFY and Buzzcocks, Mongrels and Death in Paradise + TOTP 1976 whenever the V+ decides to record its sporadic showings so about 5 hours plus the news over breakfast.

To make up for it I do sometimes go on a binge of watching films on DVD.

I made a conscious decision to not have a TV in my study so only go into the living room to specifically watch a programme.

The TV is on from about 7pm - 10:30pm every night but how much "watching" is done? I'm titting about here, Mrs L is doing something on her iPad..

I'll be watching the footy later, possibly zipping through Masterchef afterwards.

I do watch Grand Designs, though.

And there's 20 mins of Breakfast every day to get my fix of Sian Williams.

Definitely not enough.

It's always on though. Which both my wife and I find perplexing.

'What are you watching?'

'Oh, I don't know. It's just on. I'm reading/knitting/surfing/dozing'

'Shall we just turn it off then?'

'Yeah, go on. No wait! There's something on I'd like to see in half an hour. Just leave it.'

So it stays on - laughing, shouting and pontificating in the corner while we basically ignore it.

Oh! Masterchef! Bye!

Until Treme comes back for a third series, likely to remain that way.

Edit: or Time Team. I don't know why but I have a thing for Time Team. Hmm, not so cool now eh James?

.. well ... Cbeebies is on for the lad so I kind of absorb bits of that, otherwise it's all hand broken dvds - for about 10 mins a night until I fall asleep.

And goes off about 11pm most nights. I'm not sure I actually watch it though. I mean, it's on now, Phil 's got some sort of property programme going, but that's Mrs P's choice. I'm contributing to this thread, so I'm not really watching. Given the choice, it would hardly ever be on. There's not much in the way of must-see-live tv, and we've got a PVR, so I'd be more than happy to put some music on and talk/read. But Mrs P likes her telly, and thankfully that doesn't mean the soaps, so I'm OK with it. And I watch my boxsets of West Wing, BSG etc, when Mrs P goes off to bed.

I'm not going to attempt an hour count, but if I did it would be an underestimate. I make a point of watching University Challenge, Only Connect and Later, all of them on catch-up; frequently catch up with music progs on BBC4, HIGNFY, QI and Would I Lie To You, which is just about the most entertaining panel show at the moment. And House. (btw is anyone else completely mystefied that House could be dismissed, even jokingly, as "Girls' TV"??)

Then there's sport: Mrs R and I are both huge tennis fans, and can watch it for hours - British Eurosport is a godsend in this regard. We both like athletics and football too, while I'll watch rugby if I can, and the occasional boxing match.

Then there's the kids stuff: CBeebies, CBBC and whatever that channel at number 737 on Virgin is.

Then there's the occasional DVD, either a film or an episode or two of Frasier. We've done 24 and Lost previously and I'm hoping Santa will bring In Treatment.

In my spare time, I work, rest and play...

may be similar to the ones given to doctors asking 'how much do you drink?' The doctors, generally, multiply the given response by a a factor of 2 or 3 to approximate the true figure.
I watch loads of sport (mainly football), Curb, Dexter, Sopranos (again), TOTP '76, indie movies, horror movies (my gf likes them), Storyville, Family Guy, interesting docus etc.
I never watch Strictly, X factor, property porn, BBC 3 (apart from Family Guy) and rarely watch BBC 1/BBC 2/ITV.

... Only Connect? Many have mentioned it, and I haven't heard of it. I could google, but nicer if somebody here fills me in I think.

but large chunks of it is BBC24 news as a background instead of the radio. Other large chunks are footie. Add in Saturday night with the kids (Dr Who, Primeval, Merlin) and it is easy 15 hours per week. Actual programmes though? 5 hours maybe.