World's Greatest Couch Potato

A man from Sri Lanka on Friday broke the Guinness world record for the longest time spent watching TV. He finished with 69 hours and 48 minutes.

Suresh Joachim did his TV viewing in the lobby of WABC-TV as part of the "Guinness World Record Breaker Week" on the syndicated talk show "Live With Regis and Kelly."

After passing the previous record of 50 hours and 7 minutes Thursday, Joachim continued until about 7 a.m. Friday.

Sitting on a brown leather couch, he watched nothing but ABC shows.

"I'm going to be a little tired of watching TV after this," Joachim told The Associated Press by phone during a brief break.

Rules for the couch potato honor, as stipulated by Guinness, allow for a five-minute break every hour and a 15-minute break every eight hours. The viewer must otherwise be constantly looking at the screen.

The hardest part, Joachim said on "Regis and Kelly," was "I couldn't watch the people" — the many, waving passers-by on the street outside the ABC studio.

Joachim, who lives in Toronto but hails from Sri Lanka, now holds more than 16 Guinness records, including the longest duration balancing on one foot (76 hours, 40 minutes) and bowling for 100 hours. He does it, he says, to raise awareness of suffering children.