That works out to 5 hours of TV per day, which if you think about it as 1 hour in the morning, as you are getting ready for work, just to catch the news and weather, another hour of news and junk when you come home, while making/eating dinner, then the 3 hour prime time slot between 8-11 pm, yeah, the average American does watch that much TV.
And for children, it's worse, since you have to add in the after school cartoons, too.