Americans watching 4.5+ hours of TV per night

A Nielsen Media Research report indicates that during the past fall Americans watch over 4.5 hours of television every night. Perhaps a sign that the diversification of news programming, the blitz of reality shows and shorter programs is working.

What’'s incredible is that fact that TV viewing is still increasing at a time when there are so many new distractions like video games, DVDs, the Internet, etc.

What's most interesting, finds the New York Times, is that older demographics are showing the most activity, motivated by news coverage:

Paul Donato, the chief research officer for Nielsen, noted that TV watching was flat for younger people, but up for those 35 and older. "News is driving viewership," he said.

Now what I'd like to see are the number of shows watched in an average session. Are people forever channel surfing, or have the networks finally figured out the elusive goal of how to keep audiences to stay put?