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Can we please avoid promos with final scenes?

ABC1's promo for United States of Tara this week includes vision from the final scene.

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I caught the ABC1 promo for tomorrow night’s United States of Tara and was surprised to see it include vision from the final scene.

In my book that’s a bit of a Spoiler, especially when it’s one of the most telling moments of the episode.

Promos should really be about the first act, the set-up of a plot. It’s the same as when Margaret and David tell us the premise of a movie., so that you are enticed to sample it. But once you move beyond this you’re really giving away the story.

One of the worst I can recall was a Seven promo for Brothers and Sisters with footage of the car crash scene… the one that killed off Rob Lowe.

Until something has aired, can we keep the outcome under wraps, please?

15 Responses

  3. Movie trailers can be just as bad . I remember the trailer for Castaway gave away what happens at the end of the movie even down to showing the final scene!

  4. @craig

    Completely agree. I’m still gutted by the Bones promo from the 100th episode last year. That promo alone made me seek out online viewing. Now, I can watch the Channel 7 promos for a laugh, as every week they spoil some key moment of the next episode which I’ve already watched spoiler free months earlier. Same can be said for TV Week…the front cover about Bones a few weeks ago was unbelievable, but then the article that implied what the ‘big bombshell’ was just unfair. oops…did I just admit to having read that mag?…

    and yes @MattC – that Castle promo was staggering.

  5. Very true.

    W channel had a couple of Spirited season one promos which showed way too much, including one which revealed a major end-of-episode twist!

    Showcase also ran some very spoily promos for Breaking Bad season three, quite a few featuring the final scene! It most certainly ruined the surprise of a few eps, so I muted the promos and looked away! Why, oh why, would you do this to viewers!

  6. I thought it was a bit of a spoiler too.

    I also agree with MattC about the Castle promo. I couldn’t believe they were showing that final moment in the promo! It completely took away the shock/suprise one would have felt when the event actually happened in the ep.

  9. It’s important to remember the whole point of a promo is to catch the viewers’ attention. Summing up a plot outline and setup takes time and becomes nothing but wallpaper to all but the most avid viewers of a particular show. If you are catering to the viewers who only watch that show then your ratings will never improve. Showing the best vision from an episode is far more important, even if it’s the last shot of the episode.
    You mentioned they showed the final shot from ‘United States Of Tara’ as being a spoiler, a spoiler for who? Does that shot make a new viewer interested in watching the show? It’s more likely than not.
    It’s not an exact science but if it gets bums on seats, do it. If you show a car crash for example, it’s not a spoiler. Showing the outcome of the car crash (if the person lives or dies), that’s a spoiler.

  11. Seven did the same thing with the Castle season finale only a couple of weeks ago, with the promo featuring the episode’s final frame (Castle hovering over a body, whispering “I love you, Kate”).

    If that’s not the mother of all spoilers, I don’t know what is.

  12. I agree David, some of the locally produced promos for international shows are the worst, either giving away the ending with a huge spoiler or leading viewers down the wrong path and totally misrepresenting the main plot of the episode.

    This is why some fan void them.

  15. @David

    The size of the image on the front page is wrong at the moment on my computer unless you plan on moving it to the highlight section. Just thought you might want to know.

    I agree about spoilers generally unless the viewer looks them up for themselves. Although there is research that many enjoy a story more if they know the end so they can relax about the journey to get there. I’ve found it to be true but I really don’t like unasked for spoilers. Especially if it ruins the experience. So it can depend I guess.

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