Personal opinion, only: I think the amount of TV people watch goes with intelligence, rather than gender. (Of course, those more intelligent than I am, and with more channels available than the four or five terrestrial channels in the UK, may well watch a lot on subjects of particular interest to them, but let's put them to one side for the moment).

I was once asked whether I had seen the latest episode of some soap or other ("EastEnders", I think). I replied that I didn't watch that series at all. My questioner looked me up and down and said, "You sad bastard". Now, in England, "sad" in this context doesn't mean, "unhappy", it means "narrow-minded, sociophobic, anally-retentive sufferer from Asperger's Syndrome". I didn't pursue the conversation, but wondered how many people regard it as a virtue that they should let a TV seried live their lives for them.

There are other examples; such as the people who protested to the Home Secretary when the character Deirdre Raschid (formerly Barlow) from "Coronation Street" went to prison for fraud, others who accost actors in the street and threaten them if their screen persona continues an unpopular course of action (this is sometimes a problem for the cast of "Coronation Street" in Manchester).

I won't risk too much statistical correlation, but I wonder how many people's life and attitudes are modelled on TV series, which in turn are modelled on Arts Graduate's views on how "ordinary" peoples lives are lived ? And in turn, who has a closer grasp of reality - me, or the "EastEnders" junkie ?