There Is Literally Too Much TV For One Person To Watch By THIS Much

Everyone has been there a time or two — flipping through hundreds of cable channels only to discover that there's absolutely nothing to watch. Well, as suspected, that couldn't be further from the truth. As proven by a recent TV by the Numbers research study, the amount of TV programming on during one week is literally too much for one person to watch in a single week, and just how much will totally take you by surprise.

But before diving into the actual findings, it's important to take a deep look at just how TV by the Numbers assessed the programming. According to their website, their case study took a deep dive into mostly new primetime episodes, and including a few reruns, airing the week of March 5 — pulling from the Nielsen Live +7 ratings. So that means, those networks that opt out of the Nielsen program were not included — such as most channels without commercials, PBS, C-Span, or special ESPN channels.

Even still, TV by the Numbers found that over 3,000 television programs aired on a total of 133 networks — providing a whomping four months worth of television content in just one week. And most of which available on cable networks — 2,635 prgrams to be exact. Makes you think twice about getting rid of those massive cable packages, huh?

In case you're one of the many Americans wondering if you have the correct pulse on some of televisions hottest shows, TV by the Numbers' data can totally help you decipher that. According to their findings, the top five, same-day, highest rated primetime shows during their case study week of March 5 were The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, The Voice, American Idol, and This Is Us. This means that if you're one of the television enthusiasts who are insistent on catching your favorite programming live, or the same-day it airs, you're totally included in these numbers.

Is your mind still not blown? Well, this next tidbit of information form the study just may do the trick. TV by the Numbers' findings didn't include all of the programming available on the world's favorite streaming platforms — such as the Netflixs, Hulus, and Amazon Primes of the world. And if they had, one could imagine that the numbers would increase drastically. Oh, and when it comes to catching new programming on other digital platforms, like YouTube Original, for example, those amount of views aren't being factored either.

Four months worth of television available at your fingertips in a single week may sound totally wild to some, especially when conversations surrounding there being "nothing to watch" hit the airwaves. TV by the Numbers' research study definitely helped to shed light over the enormous amount of content out there for consumers, and when looking at the numbers, you'd think that with so many programs available, that old aged notion is totally debunked. After all, with more programming at our grasp than one could possibly consume in a single week, we should always be entertained, right?

Four months worth of television to consume in a single week obviously means that we just may have a little too much content at our disposal, however. And the over-saturation in the market could totally be the main cause of frustration for the consumer. Having too many options is possibly just as bad, if not worse, than having too little — for the consumers, advertisers, and the networks. And seeing as a couple of the programs included within the TV by the Numbers study garnered an average of 1,000 viewers — like a rerun broadcast of a Spanish soccer match, and comedy talkshow Comics Unleashed — this couldn't be more true.