channel-surfing

channel surfing

The frequent changing of channels when watching television, especially for an extended period of time. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. I hate channel surfing. I can't understand why people don't just pick a program and watch it!
See also: channel, surfing

channel-surfing

Quickly switching between channels on a TV, as while looking for a program to watch. I'm channel-surfing, but it doesn't look like anything good is on.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

channel surfing

Switching from one television station (channel) to another frequently, either to search for an interesting program or to keep track of several programs at once. For example, What did you see on TV last night?-Nothing much; I was just channel surfing. The term transfers the surfer's search for good waves to the viewer's search for programs. This practice became widespread with the use of remote-control devices for changing channels while remaining seated some distance from the television set. [1980s] A 1990s version is Internet surfing, a similar process for searching cyberspace.
See also: channel, surfing
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

channel surfing

verb
See channel hopping
See also: channel, surfing
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • channel surfing
  • internet
  • surfing
  • channel surf
  • surf
  • surf the channels
  • bloody minded
  • be cast in the same mould
  • hate (someone or something) like sin
  • hate like sin
References in periodicals archive
With the craft of a skilled movie director, Goytisolo pulls back from the confrontation between hungry refugees and indignant vacationers to reveal the Marx family in a barren flat, channel-surfing before dinner.
The Marx Family Saga
Images of the caveman, interspersed with ugly scenes in the contemporary home - lighting the barbecue, jostling at the bathroom mirror, reading in the loo, troughing at the fridge and channel-surfing with the TV remote control cover the ground in five minutes.
Stand-up show of Little consequence; NIGHT OUT IN LONDON
BRUCES: A "channel-surfing channel" that will show me whatever it is that various celebrities are watching at that moment.
The vaster wasteland
Mariological devotion is strongly emphasized, lest any channel-surfing Protestants think that they've found TBN or the Family Channel.
Catholicism's new cold war: the church militant lurches rightward
Today's channel-surfing review of TV items: Meredith affiliates with Katz Nets; Katz signs up for 250 or so movies; Scripps is losing a Scripps from its board; Rentrak gets a cable client; AXS gets a carriage deal with Suddenlink; and Media General is bringing baseball to Indianapolis.
TV News: Meredith, Katz Broadcasting, Scripps, Rentrak, AXS, Media General
18-19 broadcasts of "American Idol," Fox used what it calls a "double box"--one for the ads, another for a look at goings-on from the stage and set of the show--in hopes of keeping viewers from channel-surfing or fast-forwarding with their DVR.
Fox Ad plan thinks inside the double box: net tests its DVR-proof strategy with commercials that pop up side by side with programming
Francona spent a lot of Sunday, at least when he wasn't at the ballpark, sleeping and channel-surfing - a typical Sunday for a lot of people, save for being at Fenway when there was no game being played.
Ellsbury dismal in 2nd playoffs; Far cry from his 2007 heroics
Rota is cued to a channel-surfing soundtrack in which Mozart rubs shoulders with The Chemical Brothers, and Strauss is the flipside of Tangerine Dream.
A Big Wheel From Brazil
THE night that Boyzone's Stephen Gately (pictured) confessed he was gay, I was channel-surfing when I chanced upon George Michael's video for Too Funky on MTV.
Tony Parsons column: TRUTH WILL OUT, STEPHEN
In Channel-Surfing the Apocalypse Nash explores the possibilities of annihilation by disease, radiation fallout, and terrorist bombing, but it is the modern version of apocalypse, death-by-culture, which frightens her most.
Channel-Surfing the Apocalypse
For many networks who depend on channel-surfing, having a critic reviewing their shows isn't a core part of their PR plan.
TV Crixlash
Every verbal skit, many ending in pithy punch lines, connects with every other through linguistic sleights-of-hand, leitmotifs, and repeated chapter titles, creating the impression of symphonic structure, or, more appropriate, channel-surfing infoglints retrieved from the late-millennium mediascape.
David Shields. Remote
Carlson's dance-theater event has its own channel-surfing feel.
ETIHW
"I travel all over the world and some time ago when I was in a hotel in Los Angeles channel-surfing, I realized that whenever I see a documentary about something for which Italy is world-famous, it is never an Italian production," he says.
Mogul boots up Italo endeavor
Extended sequences of various anchors and newscasters--complete with scrolling headlines along the bottom warning of looting--may create a "Day After'-style "Wait, what the hell is going on now?" reaction among channel-surfing auds.
Meltdown