ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an account of twenty-first century domestic television viewing and leisure time in the lives of two single men—Chris Smith and Daniel Stern. The post-war twentieth and twenty-first century living room may have displayed an array of changing fashion, styles, and designs, but, for the most part, domestic spaces for relaxation contain a television, which remains an enduring and important entertainment technology embedded in everyday life. Understanding television’s role in daily life and the way in which audiences respond to and use television has been a central concern of the academic fields of media and television studies. Object relations theories are pertinent to audience research as they point to the significance of attachments to, and relationships with non-human objects or “things” which also include a range of cultural experiences such as cinema and television viewing. The viewing landscape has changed. Television has been revolutionised by the development of time-shift/record-replay technologies such as DVD and digital technology.
