How to get my son to stop watching tv?

To be honest its extremely difficult working with a child at home. There is a reason a lot of contracts don't allow it.

In terms of activities I'd focus on stuff that's open ended such as:
Magna tiles
Building blocks
Crafting
Play dough
Ice painting

How about chalk board, busy board, fuzzy felt, train track he can construct himself etc. Heuristic play with household items.

I'm a SAHM and have to tv going with movies and shows always but my 2.5 yr old rarely watches any of it. He plays with his cars and hot wheel tracks. If I had to guess he only watches maybe 1.5 hours total

My son loves drawing/colouring books,puzzles and he’s got this card reader with loads of cards that read out each card to help with speech and learning? Or even a leap pad the one my son has you can do anything from tracing numbers, letters, pictures, names and also has a free draw setting too

Your post reminded me of a time I had a meeting and our Nanny was ill. I was 100% screen free until both 3.5. I cancelled the rest of my day but thought I could do a 30 min meeting. I set up this coloured rice activity which took ages. Rice everywhere for weeks and my tots were on camera demanding Mumma within 8 minutes.

You may not find this helpful, but honestly one of the most important skills to learn as early as possible is to be bored! It’s something that’s hard at first but sooo worth it in the long run.
My daughter has a houseful of toys and activities but I’ve never ‘set up’ an activity for her to keep her occupied and she’s developed the most incredible imagination! She reimagines her toys to be completely different things to fit the purpose of whatever story she has in her mind, and will find other bits and bobs around the house to add in. An empty kitchen roll tube will keep her occupied for hours 🤣
Water painting mats/books are good because there’s no setup, supervision, or cleanup needed, and a yoto player is perfect to satisfy the ‘entertainment’ side while also being something they can use independently. The less you focus on finding ways to ‘keep him entertained’, the more he will entertain himself ◡̈

Put movies that are 1 hour or 1:30 minutes long, and low stimulation. If is high stimulation the moment u turn it off they ask for more. Low is so relaxing and it feels they don't need more,but also depends if thier tierd lol