Check out our review of the TiVo Roamio DVR.
After almost four days, a fountain of energy drinks, and an atmosphere of aromas that we don’t even want to imagine, TiVo’s superfans have done it. Locked down in a makeshift living room at TiVo’s CES booth, a trio of newly-anointed professional binge-watchers accomplished their goal of watching 87 straight hours of TV, securing their place in the Guinness Book of World Records, and giving the rest of us the will to fulfill our New Year’s resolution to get outside more this year.
The new kings of binging, which include Chris Laughlin, Dan Jordan and Spencer Larson, were under constant guard by TiVo staff as well as EMTs. By rule, each participant was allowed five minutes of break time for every hour of TV viewed to go to the bathroom, sleep, or perhaps simply rest their corneas and think wistfully about the pre-industrial era. The event started on Monday January 6th, the night before CES 2014 officially opened its doors to the public, and finished on Friday morning, at which point the watchers were carted off by the EMTs to assure they wouldn’t be driving, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The publicity stunt was a push for binge-viewing by TiVo, which considers its Roamio DVRs especially well suited for the practice, thanks to their ability to let users watch live, on-demand, and DVR content at home, online, and over mobile networks. A majority of Americans engage in binge-viewing, according to a poll by Harris Interactive conducted last year, and the numbers have likely only grown since then. TiVo is hoping to cash in on that trend, and curtail ‘cord-cutting’ with its massive assortment of viewing options.
Unlike the previous record holders, who reportedly watched The Simpsons for just under 87-hours, TiVo’s participants were allowed to peruse the entire Roamio catalog, as long as they looked at the screen while channel surfing. Still, while we’ve all had our fair share of long weekends in front of the tube, the stint was one hell of a marathon for testing out the durability of today’s network programming. Participant Dan Jordan perhaps put it best, saying “… we had no idea what we were in for.” After four days of grueling endurance, we’d be willing to bet the participants won’t be rushing back to the small screen any time soon.
