watch less tv

I’ve begun to reduce my idle television time. I’ve already dropped Alias and Bones from my TiVo’s season pass line-up. I went from about 22 shows to about 14. I won’t be adding any new shows to my watching except Mercy Reef and the two new superhero cartoons that are coming up next fall. (Legion of Superheroes and the Fantastic Four.)

I’m also going to be watching less “just to kill time” television. No more turning on the Simpsons when I get home from work. If I’m eating dinner and there’s nothing on TiVo to watch, then the television will remain off.

Also, I’m not going to stay up later to polish off already-recorded things. A few nights ago, I was up until at least quarter after midnight because I wanted to see Tuesday night’s House. That could have waited a day. I cost myself sleep because I couldn’t wait another day, and that’s just stupid.

I’m a junkie. I admit it. I currently watch fifteen shows religiously. If all of them aired during a given week, that week would contain twelve hours and fifteen minutes of television.

Luckily, it’s not ever scheduled that way. Two of the shows come back in June for a short run, and one comes back in October. Here’s the current list:

Veronica Mars (1 hour, UPN/The CW)
Smallville (1 hour, UPN/The CW)
The Dead Zone (1 hour, USA)
Battlestar Galactica (1 hour, Sci/Fi)
The 4400 (1 hour, USA)
House (1 hour, FOX)
Close to Home (1 hour, CBS)
24 (1 hour, FOX)
Bones (1 hour, FOX)
Doctor Who (1 hour, Sci/Fi)
Scrubs (30 minutes, NBC)
How I Met Your Mother (30 minutes, CBS)
Family Guy (30 minutes, FOX)
South Park (30 minutes, Comedy Central)
Robot Chicken (15 minutes, Cartoon Network)

Part of my plan to watch less television is attrition. As shows are cancelled or ended, they’ll drop off.

Additionally, I don’t plan on adding more shows next fall, with three exceptions: I plan on giving Mercy Reef a shot, because it’s Aquaman. And there are cartoons coming up for The Legion of Super Heroes and the Fantastic Four. The cartoons will be half hour episodes and won’t be as frequent as a full season of an hourlong show, and the hourlong show will probably get cancelled after two episodes, because it’s Aquaman and they’re not even calling it Aquaman.

The fact that I’m even thinking ahead to next season is a symptom of my larger television obsession though. I’ve been trying to clean myself up by dropping season passes to other shows like Alias and the Simpsons… perhaps some more of these will get cancelled soon.

Edit: After I wrote this, I dropped Bones from the TiVo too. It’s not complete success, but it’s a start.