Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Wrench... drill... Ryan Seacrest?

Some guys came over Wednesday to do a little work on the house. These are guys who sweat for a living.

At one point they were debating back and forth, so my ears perked up. I figured they were deciding whether to go with the hand wrench or the ratchet.

They were talking about who’s going to win “American Idol.”

My wife and I have never latched onto the show – we tend to obsess over one TV show at a time, and this year it’s “24.” The good news is, you don’t have to watch “AI.” Everybody else watches it for you.

I haven’t seen a minute of it this year but I know it’s down to Taylor and Katharine, and Taylor is the better singer but Katharine is more polished, and no way either of them are better than Chris.

On Thursday I’ll pick up on the ending by osmosis. Or maybe I'll just get the guys to come back and do some more work on the house.

Speaking of “24,” I screwed up bigtime Monday night – I set the VCR to tape from 9 to 11, not knowing the final episode ran from 8 to 10.

No need to offer tapes -- got one. But along the way I found out that we might be the only household in America without a digital video recorder.

TiVo is tempting, but we don't need more TV in our lives. So here's a question for those of you with DVRs: Since you got one, do you watch more TV, or less?

This doesn’t go on your permanent record. Be honest.

UPDATE: OK, I watched the last five minutes of "Idol." Was Taylor, like, overcome with emotion or something? Because based on that five minutes -- I don't know how to say this delicately -- the guy can't sing. Please tell me this was just an off moment. Fantasia would've wiped the floor with this guy.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

We watch more TV...in the same or less amount of time. We watch almost nothing live as you can watch a hour show in 40 minutes while zipping through commercials.

Anonymous said...

I second the previous poster... I watch more TV now but it takes less time. The nice thing is that I can record things like ER that come on later, but still go to bed at the same time as the hubs. You can watch what you want, but it's at your own convenience. It's really cool.

Anonymous said...

I've had DirecTV for 10 years; Tivo for five. I would never go back to "regular" viewing. We probably watch LESS TV, but we watch when we want to. TV schedules mean nothing to me.

Anonymous said...

What people without TiVo overlook is the ability to pause live TV. I try to record everything that I might watch, but sometimes, you're just surfing and come upon an interesting game. Start watching, and your wife needs help - rather than complaining, hit the pause button and do what she needs. I think the amount of TV content watched remains the same (aside from fast forwarding commercials, which does save time) - but it makes your life BETTER because, as the other posters have said, you're in control without being a slave, with both recorded and live TV.

Michael said...

Haven't put a stopwatch on it, but my guess would be we watch less TV. First, there's just not that many shows we like and, as previously noted, we blow past most commercials.

I say most because ya still gotta break for bathroom and refill runs...

Anonymous said...

We watch less TV. We are able to record only what we want and aren't forced to browse thru endless minutes of shows we couldn't care less about, trying to find something to watch. Also we actually have a life now becuase we aren't glued to the TV so we won't miss our favorite show. We watch when we have the time.

And yes you noticed what most of America seemed to miss, Taylor can't sing that well. He just performs well. Chris, Katherine, Elliot and Mandisa were the better singers. I guess the singing isn't all thats required to sell a record where you can't see the person perform. Maybe he is America's Idol, just not mine.

Anonymous said...

I watch the same amount of TV, watch more of what I want, and spend less time doing it.

Instead of chanel surfing and watching bits and pieces of garbage, I watch a show I actually am interested in but couldn't see when it first aired.

And I can put the kids to bed at 8:15, and not miss any of the 8pm shows I wanted to watch.

The only downside is when I am actually watching something real time and can't fast forward through the commercials. I'm so accustomed to blowing by them, it drives me crazy to actually have to watch them.

Anonymous said...

I have to laugh ... because I have said the same thing about AI for years ... I don't have to watch it because everyone else does. This year I think it has passed frenzy level; I knew the names of all the finalists instead of just the final two or three. So I decided to break down and watch part of the finale last night.
It was abysmal! They only sing parts of songs. It was padded beyond belief. (Golden Idol awards?) It gave the word "shallow" a whole new meaning! And a previous poster was correct: This isn't a singing contest; it is a popularity contest. Whoever has the best gimmick and most charisma wins. Looks like ol' Taylor knew how to play to win - and isn't THAT a metaphonr for life?

Anonymous said...

When I had TW DVR, we watched more shows, on our own schedule, in about the same time. Most hour-long shows are only about 35 minutes of programming. I dropped back to basic el-cheapo cable. I don't miss the extra channels, but I do miss the DVR.

Anonymous said...

We actually watch less TV now -- of course it could be the addition of two kids! TV is still on a good bit of the time even when no one's watching or we're all outside doing something. Sad, I know. But we dvr a season of our favorite couple of shows and end up watching maybe 2 nights a week and then use the dvr'd shows as fillers on the weekend evenings. Love it!!!

Anonymous said...

With or without DVR - isn't it sad how important TV is in most people's life?

Anonymous said...

I LOVE my DVR.. you can skip commercials and I am an admitted Idol fan but didn't obsess over missing any of it..

..the only negative.. the "hard drive" on the DVR went out once and we lost all we recorded.. but I only tend to record what I really want to see

could not live w/out my DVR now

Anonymous said...

I love the DVR. One thing I really like is when I see something and think someone else would really love it because you can just hit the record button and it records what you've been watching. I probably watch more because now I can just say, record Megastructures or Cirque du Soleil whenever they come on and, if it's 3 a.m. on a Tuesday, I see it when I wake up! It's a good thing . . .