Slow down

Previously, I have posted about Norwegian Reality TV. It garnered some attention in Hollywood under the heading "Slow TV." In addition to the fjord cruise I noted, they  have programs covering the opening night of salmon fishing season and firewood which apparently elicited some controversy. The whole thing began innocently enough in 2009 with a documentary about the 100th anniversary of the train that runs from Bergen to Oslo. This program was eight hours long and consisted solely of video from a camera mounted on top of the locomotive. About 12% of the households in Norway tuned in.
Their latest program is nearly nine hours of knitting. Well, the actual knitting was closer to five hours, the program also featured shearing the sheep and spinning the wool, but after that, it was a group of people just sitting in a circle knitting. 
I mention all this to give you a sense for how thrilled the nation is to have the undisputed world chess champion hail from Norway. After all, chess is exciting! (Compared to seven hours of stacking firewood.)