Five young Austrians have set a new TV binge-watching record, remaining in front of the blue screen for 92 hours.
In this time, you can watch 61 football games, or 250 episodes of the Simpsons, or all of the ‘Game of Thrones’ released so far twice over, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard said. It would take the average Austrian 32 days to watch all that.
The winners are apparently far from average. The four men and one woman, aged between 19 and 24, were selected from 400 candidates who had applied.
The experiment took place in the window of a furniture shop called Leiner in Vienna. The marathon TV watch kicked off with all five viewing the ‘House of Cards’ TV series.
The participants were allowed to take five-minute breaks every hour to go to the bathroom, or shower, or take a power nap, or just stretch their legs a bit.
To stay awake, the five availed themselves of an exercise bike, coffee and energy drinks.
“Towards the end it was really tough for them,” one of the organizers, Moritz Arnold, told AFP, adding that Guinness World Records has acknowledged the attempt.
“I wanted to be in the Guinness Book of Records,” one of the participants, Zivan Pajkanovic, told Der Standard. His parents were against him taking part, the 23-year-old man also said, laughing.
Nadine Pauser, 20, the only female participant, prepared primarily by getting “a lot of sleep.”
The reaction of passers-by ranged from amusement to head-shaking disbelief, with some suggesting there should have been a reading marathon instead.
The previous record was established in Toronto, Canada, in December 2014, with participants there watching TV for 91 consecutive hours.
