Proof of Intelligent Life: Heroes, Lost, Fringe Take Three of Top Five in DVR'd and TiVo'd Shows

Great news for fans of science fiction on television today. Nielsen announced its 2008 list (January-November) of the most watched television via TiVo and DVR. And although the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of American Idol took the top two places, Heroes, Lost, and Fringe were in the next three places, as 3rd, 4th, and 5th most watched television on the viewers' rather than the networks' schedule. Battlestar Galactica did great, too, registering the biggest increase in TiVo and DVR viewers.

Hey, this is good news for Infinite Regress, too - all of those are devotedly reviewed here.

What this shows is something I've always known: science fiction attracts not only the most imaginative, deepest audiences, but people who understand that the great value of science and technology is the control it gives us over our lives and choices. Watching television on television's schedule is for coach potatoes of a bygone age. The discerning television viewer, who looks at a fine television show the same as a fine movie or book, watches the show on his or her times, just as we decide when to read a book and how much of it.

On-demand and television via DVD and Netflix are part of the process. But the cutting edge of the new golden age of television is via TiVo and DVR, and it's gratifying to know those who appreciate a good science fiction show are leading the revolution.

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