The golden rule on Spoilers
Where do you draw the line in the sand on TV Spoilers? It's pretty simple....
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
This week a friend told me off for spoiling an episode of True Blood that he hadn’t managed to see. Overlooking the fact that he’s not actually a Foxtel subscriber, I proceeded to explain my view that Aired = News / Unaired = Spoiler.
It’s a policy I’ve developed over a number of years, and one that I maintain in publishing here.
His comments echoed some on the True Blood story on this site itself.
So it’s with some interest that I see The Age today follows the very same line in the sand, as noted by writer Paul Kalina:
One effect of the ”watch what you want when you want” water that we all drink these days is that most of us are watching different shows at different times.
And even if we’re watching the same show, chances are some of the audience has recorded it to watch later while others have downloaded the advance episodes.
It’s become almost impossible to talk about a series without either dropping an unintentional spoiler or hearing one.
This, of course, raises the question of when it’s OK to publish stories that discuss spoilers or what are meant to be key plot or character developments. The moment the show has aired (and if so, where)? Two hours after? A day after? The release of the box set?
Of course, giving away plot or character spoilers before viewers have a chance to see the show for themselves is a no-no. But where to draw the line?
By covering shows as close to their broadcast, websites such as this one and online bloggers are creating rallying posts for viewers to dissect and discuss their favourite shows.
*For the record, our unofficial rule is we don’t run spoilers. But once an episode has broadcast on a TV platform, it’s up for grabs.
 That last line is exactly the rule of thumb here.
TV Tonight is a blog with television news. As we know the wider media and social media report on everything from Patrick dying in Offspring to Harrison winning The Voice to the red wedding in Game of Thrones. It’s unreasonable for a dedicated television site to have to withhold such news when it is reported far and wide by other media.
Major news incidents, such as those mentioned above, generally elicit 2 or 3 articles. So the question of “when is it ok to publish?” isn’t answered by “just don’t put it in a headline?” What do you do for story #2, #3 and #4?
I’m also faced with the dilemma of what photo to use. Writing about a possible death of one character in True Blood would be completely misleading by using the photo of another. Keywords in headlines are also crucial for SEO  and site archiving. I trust everyone has at some time come to know how valuable the archive is. But headlines such as “MasterChef winner announced” “Major death in TEN show” would be useless.
Yes I appreciate my headlines are also published via Twitter and RSS. In all likelihood whatever news I am apparently “Spoiling” has already run through Twitter before me, by viewers equally shocked / surprised / delighted by the content they have just viewed.
I also believe the worst thing I could do would be to create confusion by having one rule for one show or one genre and another for everything else. The whole concept of Spoiling is about to tell you something that hasn’t yet happened. But as The Age appreciates, Aired = News. As a result, I never run Eurovision results until SBS has screened AEST despite the fact it has been on websites and the 6pm news across the same day.
From Timeshifted data we can see that viewers are watching dramas long after their broadcast, but the onus should be on you, breaking from the pack, to modify your use of social media accordingly.
Just a reminder, the Broadchurch killer will be revealed on Friday night and there’s a finale for Dexter coming very, very soon…
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- Tagged with Broadchurch, Dexter, Game of Thrones, MasterChef Australia, Offspring, The Voice, True Blood
28 Responses
To throw a curveball into the mix, what is the spoiler policy on a series such as House of Cards, that was released all in one hit? There are going to be those that binge on it over a weekend, those that binge on it over a week (like me), and those that may take their time with it. I read online somewhere about a guy checking his Facebook account and there were people talking about episode 11, the day after the series was released. That would annoy me!
I’m quite stunned that you have to explain yourself again David!
It’s not a hard concept to understand that once a show is aired you will blog about it – that is what you do! How people think you should be holding off for a week because ‘I have recorded it because I had to work etc’ is an exact example of today’s selfish attitudes – in everything, not just tv watching!
I’m in WA and know damn well that if I don’t want to know who wins, who dies, who leaves, who stays then I simply don’t go on TV Tonight, Facebook etc until I’ve seen it – if its that important to me to not find out.
I only watched S3 of Game of Thrones this week and finally saw the Red Wedding episode (shocking!!) so any time I came across it in the media, social or otherwise, I shut it down as I didn’t want to spoil it for myself.
As you say, everyone has a different time frame to watch so…
I’m actually not that worried about Broadchurch. As a murder mystery it is pretty silly.
They alibied out the last two real suspects last week. That leaves 2 major characters and 3 minor characters, none of whom anything anything has pointed to, and nothing in the characters would even remotely suggest it.
re: shows that air in the afternoon same time or hours after the US – in my view, you would hold off on a story if you were to post one until most people have had the chance to view – which would be after the prime time airing that night.
There would be nothing worse than having a story up on your site at 5pm only to find that people on their way home from work who would have watched the show that night end up reading about it before they can see it that evening.
Otherwise, I agree, once a show has aired on Australian TV, stories can be published (and people in other time zones like WA – sorry but you do need to take that into account).
Ah ha!
As a massive Doctor Who fan, I make it a point to stay away from related websites until ABC have broadcast the episode. I think it is great that they can fast track, given their resources.
There are still ways to be spoiled, but I often find that even if I know the reveal, the rest of the content of the episode is interesting enough for me to be satisfied.
For example, perhaps Offspring fans might have been spoiled about Patricks death, but was the lead up / rest of episode good enough to keep them happy?
Have no problems with reporting plot developments or discussing programs after they have aired on Aussie screens (keeping in mind Western Australia is 2 or 3 hours behind). With Foxtel now having an afternoon screening and evening screening of fast tracked shows, the newspapers and blogs should show some restraint and at wait until the next morning before publishing on their websites.
I think the answer is fairly simple. Anytime after it airs but you must post in bold at the beginning of the entry “Spoiler alert”. Preferably then have a jump to access the information but thats not 100% necessary if you do the aforementioned. This is what Perez Hilton does and it works well…
It’s all just common sense and the policy here is simple common sense.
@NicH: That’s because Dan being Gossip Girl doesn’t make a lick of sense. There’s a few websites about that show the huge plot holes that unmasking created.
People are so bloody stupid. All your points are valid, David. Let ’em complain!
Aired in its home country or here? Not everything is fast tracked.
Ben: Aired here of course. See Eurovision example cited above.
Guano: I do warn about Spoilers, but we may disagree on what defines a Spoiler. As The Age notes today once broadcast “it’s up for grabs.”
I prefer to be warned about spoilers, and that they aren’t inescapably front and centre. I’m okay if David talks about an episode that’s just been broadcast, such as the winner of a Reality Show, but I’d prefer it if it was not in the headline with a photo, and instead we have to choose to click through to see it. I realise that isn’t always practical for a news site, but it still disappoints me.
The fact that we still get some shows months or years after their original country’s screening does make it a minefield. I am pleased that I have avoided accidentally stumbling on to the conclusion of Broadchurch.
I agree with your ruling completely. Sadly further vigilance is required on the viewers, especially for us WA folks. Last year’s Masterchef winner was all over my Facebook feed before I’d even remembered it was on in a couple of hours.
Yeah haven’t watched Bake Off yet, so now I know who wins, but that was my fault for wasting time watching Recipe to Riches instead.
I usually watched Offspring live, but the night Patrick died, I had to work, so of course much as I tried, I found out it was Patrick before I got a chance to watch it. The worse is the US shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race. The last 2 seasons were the first time in ages I managed to not find out who won before it aired here because we got them a few hours behind the US. I went to a US site to read an article about Homeland one time, and there at the bottom of the page was the winner of Survivor. I had thought I would be safe there.
Living in WA, I have to avoid the internet all the time to avoid television being spoiled due to time difference (which is fair enough). But it annoys me seeing East Coast viewers whine about spoiled news when they have the opportunity to watch it live. I would love the opportunity to see it with the rest of the country rather than 3 hours later.
How hard is it seriously, if you don’t want spoilers until you see an episode, just turn off your computer and smart phone. And if you happen to see it on the news or a co-worker or family member tells you, that’s your problem, not David’s and not the broadcasters. It all comes down to this, it’s David’s blog, you play by his rules, not your own.
I was a bit miffed when I bought Volume 3 of Homicide on DVD and found that the inlay synopsis revealed that Sgt Brosnan gets shot dead in episode 58. Sure it was broadcast in 1966, but it was a spoiler to me.
I agree with this.
I think there is this expectation that there will be spoilers on all forms of media once it has been aired. That includes TV news, radio, social networks and online news.
I remember having a news and internet blackout for Eurovision just because one year SBS World News announced the winner just before airing the Finals.
My rule of thumb: keep doing what you’re doing. You can’t please everyone. I’ve been spoiled a few times, but it was my fault for going on Facebook and Twitter!
My friend told me who Gossip Girl eventually was …meh
Perfectly valid rule, and the onus is on the reader to choose when to read social media. For instance I couldn’t watch the Bake Off Finale until this morning, so I chose not to go to TVTonight or any other form of TV news until after I had watched the episode on the PVR. Within minutes I was on this site so I could read the acticle I expected to be here and read peoples comments.
“the onus should be on you, breaking from the pack, to modify your use of social media accordingly.”
– Brilliant. 🙂
Better not spoil who killed Laura Palmer… 😉
Re: aired = spoilers, under you logic, does this mean you’ll be running stories on Dexter and Breaking Bad finales when they have their first aired run in the afternoon, as opposed to after their prime time screening? Just asking so I know whether to avoid the site those afternoons.
Quebec: I don’t usually plan in advance, but what would you suggest? The arvo broadcasts have changed everything again, and are evident of the kind of challenges I face. When Patrick died in Offspring I ran the story the next morning despite it running through Twitter and News Corp immediately after broadcast.