Average American Watches 34 Hours of TV a Week

The average American watches 34 hours of television per week … which sounds suspiciously like a full-time job. That slightly depressing, slightly baffling statistic comes to you courtesy of the Nielsen Company, which reports that total viewing rose about 1% in 2010. More from Nielsen, via the New York Times:

• CBS was the No. 1 network when it came to total viewers for every week of the year except one.
• Fox was first among the prized 18-to-49 demographic.
• The only new shows to land in the top 20 were all on CBS: Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and Mike & Molly.
• Of the 10 highest-rated telecasts in 2010, eight were football games, one (the Undercover Boss premiere) followed a football game, and the last was the Academy Awards.
• CNN was down 34% in viewers from 2009—the largest loss of all the cable channels.

(More entertainment stories.)