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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?

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

44 Responses

  1. Not just the internet David. I was on a peak hour train this morning and the guys in the seat in front of me were discussing the Lost finale and probably spoiled it for alot of people packed into the carriage.

  2. IMO the Lost final will be lucky to get 1 million viewers tomorrow night, probably closer to 750k. They (Seven) know nothing is going to rate against SOO so why waste other shows in a dead time slot.

    Still it would have been nice to have it air Monday on 7TWO and they tomorrow on the main channel. It would have help sell more digital STB, watch it first on 7TWO.

  3. Just watched the finale of 24 and cried :'(

    I’m surprised that 7two didn’t show double episodes over the past five weeks so that they could show the finale tonight (or even later this week) in line with the US release (7two showed 10am11am tonight, fox showed 2pm-4pm today)

  4. the herald sun sucks, why do a story on the finale and give away the plot, there are some people who stayed with show from the first ep, hope they (the HS) end up on an island

  5. I was thinkning….how did all the foreign countries get it dubbed in time for the European broadcast, or did they just get the english version…anyone know ?? if they had it dubbed, then the post houses would have had in their hands at least 10 days ado to dub the foreign actors voices on right ?

  6. I was spoiled by my My Yahoo page last week about who won Survivor. I thought I had been so careful too- avoiding articles in North American newspaper and gossip websites- only to be spoiled by my own homepage!
    As for Lost, well, that show lost me years ago. While I was hooked on American Idol, I lost interest in that sometime during the Top 10 this season. It just got a bit…meh.

  7. US ratings for the lost finale are very underwhelming. i wonder if it would have been any different if it hadn’t run til almost midnight and split into single episodes?

    7 could get under 20% on Wednesday.

  8. You can add Leigh Paatsch to the list of spoilers for his review of Animal Kingdom in the HS today, which in the first paragraph mentions a key plot line that isn’t promoted in the trailer or synopsis.

  9. Since it aired in North America on May 23, it would’ve been wiser for 7 to have aired it on Monday night here. Slotting it against against State of Origin in NSW and Qld, may seem ridiculous, but the show has had an ultra measly 200 000 Aus viewers (or even less) in recent years and Seven know if you gave up on
    the show after it’s 2nd or 3rd season, not much in the final episode will make sense, since it’s a heavily serialised show.

  10. I was tempted to watch the final else where, but with tonights special on 7TWO I think I can last the 24 or so hours until Seven airs it.

    It’s a big night with Fringe on at the same time and it’s season final.

  11. Yeah i hate trying to avoid eurovision spoilers, it’s near-impossible.

    Speaking of spoilers David…ABC really screwed up on Sunday night with the ‘coming next’ promo for Dr Who after the news – ruined the punchline to the ‘popping out of a cake’ joke which was part of the pre-credits sequence screening, what, 3 minutes later? From the direction you could tell it was meant to be a big reveal but they totally ruined it. What were they thinking?

    Seriously they need to review their promos, I’m sick of it, try to avoid seeing them altogether but that one caught me out.

  12. You want spoilers? Some wag put the last 10 minutes of the Lost finale on YouTube! In High Def!

    As for Survivor, well, if you can’t figure out who is going to win then you weren’t really watching. It’s a foregone conclusion.

  13. Just phoned the Herald Sun switchboard about the Survivor spoilers, absolutely disgraceful! And to think I almost made it to the finale without finding out anything! At least I was told there have been “a lot of complaints” about it – the girl even knew what I wanted to complain as soon as i mentioned TV listings!

  14. David, as Eurovision fan and commentator Thank You re: Eurovision. It’ll be tricky to go into a quasi-blackout, but the price of having it on FTA television with an English language commentary is so worth it.

  15. Don’t forget also the ending of Celebrity Apprentice. The Age newspaper online last night gave away the result with a front page article!

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