Who Will Be the 2007 Ultimate Couch Potato?

By Chris Karr in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 2, 2007 2:40PM

First of all, we had no idea that ESPN was sponsoring a contest to be the ultimate couch potato. We've been doing our daily reps with our three TiVos, and our endurance training consists of a steady diet of NetFlix. Had we known that we could set a record sitting on our rumps and win a 42" television, we would have worked a bit harder and made our way down to ESPN Zone yesterday.

This morning, the Chicago Daily Herald is running a story on Jason Pisarik, last year's winner and a contestant this year. Pisarik won last year's competition, logging in thirty-two hours of continous ESPN viewing. The three other contestants were two students and one paralegal. Stacy Gleason, the paralegal, was the first to fall:

Gleason, a mother of three who is just the second woman to enter the contest in its five years, dropped out at 10:10 p.m., after more than 12 hours. She won a chair.

Earlier in the contest, she said it was a struggle to clear her mind of thoughts of all the laundry, cleaning and other household chores she could have done in the time she would sit perched before a TV.

"I don't know how guys do it," she said. "I'm doing this for girls everywhere who don't get to do this while their husbands morph into the furniture watching sports on TV."

We don't know what to say about the above that won't be construed as overly sexist, so we'll refrain from commenting on Ms. Gleason.

Mr. Pisarik is looking to break last year's record, and he's making a run at the all-time record of sixty-nine hours (2.9 days) that was set in 2005 in New York City.