The Spoiler week from hell
Spoiler Free: Lost, 24, American Idol and Eurovision -has there ever been a more treacherous week in which the internet has tried to spoil your show?
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Spoiler Free:
If this isn’t the Spoiler week from hell….
Surf the internet at your own peril this week, because you are likely to stumble onto news about a television show you really didn’t want to hear.
News on the Lost finale is all over the place, including on Australian newspaper websites and news portals. Some give clear Spoiler warnings, others just march right in with the facts. No news will be published here until after 11pm AEST tomorrow.
In the US the finale averaged 13 million viewers, it’s highest-rated episode in two years. But compared to other television finales, the numbers don’t even come close. Many viewers, eroded by the show’s serialisation, clearly didn’t return, despite the massive hype. The catch up plays tonight on 7TWO and tomorrow midday on Seven if you want the refresher.
By the end of today Jack Bauer will have finished his final assignment for CTU, or possibly against CTU the way things are looking. Given we know there is a 24 movie coming at least one question is answered. Expect more Spoilers from this afternoon and into tomorrow as another long running series meets its end.
On Thursday Simon Cowell makes his last ever appearance on American Idol. At least it’s not particularly capable of being ‘spoiled’ unless you count surprise appearances like the rumoured Paula Abdul return -and maybe past winners. In any case FOX8 will air this one hot off the satellite on Thursday night. However you look at it, another long running television franchise faces big change for Americans this week.
Then there is Eurovision.
The first Semi Final begins in the next 24 hours in Oslo, but won’t air here until Friday night. The second Semi Final will take place early Friday morn Aus time. And the Final will take place early on Sunday morning. The winner of that will be plastered all over newspaper and TV news like the Oscars. “Sweden wins! Germany storms Eurovision! It’s Norway again!” A picture of the winner will hit you in the face on newspaper websites. It makes great copy.
If you intend to watch Sunday’s Final spoiler-free, you will need to go into a media blackout. No radio, no internet, no 6pm news.
TV Tonight will not be publishing any Eurovision winner news until after the broadcast ends approx 11:15pm Sunday AEST. In fact, no Comments will be approved on Sunday until after this time.
Semi Final results will be published on Saturday and Sunday. There may also be some minor Semi-Final spoilers published prior regarding performance highlights, but it will be without identifying countries and with clear Spoiler warnings… ie. “one act looked like they were going to spontaneously combust when they hit a high C”.
As television goes, there has barely been a week like this before.
David Knox blogs Eurovision at sbs.com.au
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- Tagged with 24, Academy Awards, American Idol, Eurovision, Lost
44 Responses
Looking at my facebook updates it appears Stephen Colbert will be doing something Lost related tonight, so avoid that one if you want to remain spoiler free.
Ashes to Ashes finished last week, too. Though you probably won’t accidentally stumble on spoilers yet, you’d have to seek them out specifically.
With 5 contestants left in Survivour, Channel 9 have already spolit who gets into the Grand Final with their promo!! How dumb can they be???
I was watching Today show on 9 this morning and almost got filled with Lost spoilers! Heard something I shouldn’t have whilst running around looking for the remote to put on mute. Looking forward to the finale tomorrow night
Disappointing they didnt’ get more in for the final ep.
Don’t forget the survivor finale (in Australia anyway).
I had a dream last night that I watched the lost finale, I thought it was pretty good, but not as good as I had hoped for.
Fortunately that was only a dream, I’m sure the real thing will be stunning.
Lewis says:
May 25, 2010 at 11:41 am
“The Herald Sun has an article today with spoilers in it. I don’t understand how that gets printed.”
Yes i noticed that too and left a comment saying they should put a spoiler warning and no wonder people download shows if they give away details before its even aired on TV. You really cannot expect much from the Herald Sun though.
They also had a totally stupid story on favouritism on masterchef but no actual proof of any favouritism just that Marion is a good cook and other contestants had tipped her to win. Which in their eyes somehow equalled favouritism. A total beatup of a story, but really what can you expect from the Herald Sun. Surprisingly none of my comments have been published yet.
A reminder that discussing whether Lost questions are addressed or not, or whether the Finale was fantastic or disappointing are bordering on Spoilers. Let viewers watch the show and find out for themselves please.
The butler did it
Don’t forget the Survivor finale that is due to air tonight on Nine!! I wonder if anyone managed to make it through this season spoiler-free. I got spoiled about halfway through by some random Facebook comment someone made on a Fan page. It was impossible!
Adam, the real issue isn’t a lot of the questions, the real issue is the entire 6th season. It in no way ties up and in many cases complete ignores or contradicts all the major plotlines of the show.
They did nothing to tie up any of the plotlines we’ve been following. They ignored them and this seasons plot makes what happened, motives ect make no sense. They just came up with a new little story to wrap up instead of the 5 years proceeding of plot. They failed to deliver. This became apparent to every die hard lost fan weeks ago.
The season showed they know how to make great tv episodes, but story, character wise they forgot how to craft that. The season was a mess, and it ended accordingly in an entertaining way. It just didn’t resolve any of this seasons problems or related at all to the previous 5 seasons.
last year i watched the Eurovision final live online so it finished about 8.00am on Sunday morning, and I reckon Sunrise had a spoiler not even 10 minutes later. I think the Herald Sun website showed a rare case of common sense by not including the winning country’s name in the heading so spoiling could be avoided.
But the worst culprit was SBS World News which reported on the winner just 15 minutes before the delayed telecast was meant to begin.
I’ve already read who wins Survivor thanks to a pic of the winner. I’ve also already seen who wins The Amazing Race again thanks to a pic with the caption “Amazing Race winners”. And i saw the headline on ninemsn about Lost that gives me a clue of what happens. Man the internet sucks. As do our tv networks here. If they want to stay relevant and keep people watching, they’ve got to offer shows immediately.
I think it’s time to go bush…. no phone, internet, tv or newspapers so that we remain spoiler free.
Thanks for the no spoilers policy! Last year the TV news spoiled my Eurovision – I’ll definitely go into exile on Sunday to avoid a repeat performance!
The absolute worst finale that has been made.
I didn’t want ‘moving’ I wanted answers, like the ones promised by the writers.
I have 5 co-workers who all wanted to throw things as it ended, thanks for completely destroying and wasting my time Abrahms.
The worst Spoiler on “Lost” comes from the idiots who are dissing the best series finale I have ever seen. Who cares if we got all the answers or not, although I think they are there to be found with a bit of thought. The two hours is one of the most moving pieces of series television I have ever seen. All I can say to those who haven’t seen it yet is “watch and revel”.
David do you stay spoiler free for Lost or are you a spoiler person? Must be hard for you if you dont like spoilers. Have you had many people trying to post comments here with spoilers in them?
I am hating this week, I love Survivor and I love Lost and trying to avoid spoilers hasnt been too bad so far but Ive had a couple of friends say that the nine morning news just started playing a scene out of Lost without any warning whatsoever (guess they are just trying to annoy 7) but im quite proud that ive avoided survivor spoilers considering its been over a week since the winner was announced. The only TV i will be watching is survivor finale tonight and then Lost catchup tomorrow then the one im most excited about, The Lost Finale 😀
And this just confirms Seven’s decision to hold until Wednesday as silly! I’m not asking them to air it on the main channel but had they aired on 7TWO last night, many actual Lost fans would have been thankful.
And for those people that tell Lost fans, to just stay off the internet for a few days – Lost fans are internet people generally and when mainstream news is spoiling the plot with or without warning, aside from going into a dark room or hatch like situation, living spoiler free for a finale where the main interest was the answers it may provide is almost impossible.
Too right I had my first virtually internet day yesterday to avoid Lost spoilers. It was worth it…but sheesh everywhere I turned on the world wide web was full of jerks trying to ruin my day. Sucked in jerks I won!
Biggest spoiler of the week:
On Play School Alex Papps looks through the round window
I have seen some spoilers in the aussie media which are wrong. Won’t elaborate here but they have one major detail wrong.
The Herald Sun has an article today with spoilers in it. I don’t understand how that gets printed.
Then of course there’s the fact that we’ve had to avoid the Survivor Heroes vs Villains results for a full week…
Idol is actually going Live at 10am on Fox8 so that i am glad about because i can watch something this week Live from the states.
Glad that you will be keeping spoiler free. I nearly had a heart attack when i went to one of the news limited newspapers and there was a story about the Lost finale. No where is safe, except here and a few other sites i know which is good.
I’m surprised it only got 13.5m. I saw the result this morning and went what did i miss? ABC were shooting for 20m+ according to American sites so this was a shock considering how big series finales that actually knew were coming ended.