Once again TV Guide has shown us that the web does not give a crap about TV viewers. In the past we've seen episode their episode recaps of shows with spoiler-filled headlines that pop up right after the east coast ep airs. Which is a huge eff you to west coast fans.
But now they are proving they don't give a shit about the time-shifted viewers out there who have something on DVR and are included in the live+7 (day) TV ratings numbers.
TV Guide posted a huge headline and image completely spoiling Jon Snow's fate on HBO's Game of Thrones early Monday morning, the day after the episode aired.
(The link to the post is at the bottom of this tirade, I mean article, if you want to see it, but IT IS A SPOILER just seeing the post headline.)
They did this on Facebook and they did it quite blatantly on Twitter too. And though they did try to look like they were playing with viewers desire to hid spoilers, their postings that were taking place just as the episode aired sort of gave it all away too. And they posted one post after another, after another.
They were making sure they got the web hits.
To me, what this says is that web hits and business for advertisers is their primary consideration over viewers who may have wanted to watch ensuing episodes of Game of Thrones with the anticipation of wondering and waiting to see what develops.
It was a very exciting moment and awesome build up to the moment that was well worth the wait. And done well. Unless you saw the internet news first.
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So I went off and was the first to comment on TV Guide's FB post, saying,
"AND to those who have DVR'd it and not seen it yet this post is a grand EFF YOU to your readership. A-holes."
{Let's be clear... I saw the episode. I'm upset for those who had not yet.}(Oh, and I accurately quote our intelligent FB commentating experts! Just saying.)
Then we had someone who lives in an alternate reality where they know everything already, before it happens, replying,
"Oh ffs, it's been spoiled for the last 12 months"
I'm totally unsure of what 'ffs' means. Maybe it's better I don't.* But I inquired as to how he knew and his reply was,
"Just headlines for the last 12 months that says Jon snow {REDACTED}, kinda common sense really"
So there you go. Mystery headlines I never saw from all my sources that I follow, and one more explanation that seemed to bank on luck and boom, he knew the answer.
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Others chimed on on both sides of the fence, where one even said,
"ive learned not to go on Social Media on mostly Sundays before i watch my shows"
Then someone else was admonished for seeing the spoiler on FB:
"OMG!! HOW STUPID CAN U BE?? OF COURSE PEOPLE WHO SEEN IT ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE SHOW ONLINE. DUH, THATS YOUR FAULT, NOT OURS."
Another victim posted,
"Thanks a F'in lot! Hadn't seen it! Douche nozzles!"
Douche nozzles... huh. I like it!
And the reply from another all-seeing web surfer was,
"SORRY BUT THATS YOUR FAULT, NOT OURS."
Ah, "ours." They are free associating I see.
I could not help myself so I chimed in that it's not the web surfers fault to be scrolling through one's FB feed and have one of their many 'liked' pages scroll by.
Someone even suggested we unlike the page if we're so worried. I guess we have to unlike the internet at this point.
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In the end, everyone is actually correct.
Sure, we can unlike TV Guide and every entertainment website out there so we're not spoiled before, during, or now, even days after a television event.
And despite many saying this was foretold clearly, it was not. Then again, if you were avoiding all articles about this event, it would seem not to matter. But to be clear, no article stated they had the info about Snow's fate. HBO worked very hard to keep us in the dark so we would tune in. So anyone saying it was out there, was just running with the rest of everyone's guesses.
Despite the fact that TV Guide put it out there numerous times in the 12-16 hours right after the Game of Thrones show, sometimes with an attempt to look like they were protecting the content, but clearly it was easily deciphered, to other posts that left nothing to the imagination.
They do have a business to run and the GoT contingent is but one tiny piece of it.
But their article did inspire conversation, and probably, by my commenting on the post, my friends saw the post too on FB, thus, I spoiled it for them just by interacting with TVG.
Again, something I'm sure TVG loved, but this time even though I knew better, I could not help myself.
TVG isn't the only entity to do things like this, so it's not all on them.
Other sites label their posts "Spoilers About {Whatever}" when in fact, the titles are all out lies as they give nothing away about what their titles suggest.
Movie distributors give action points and spoilers away all the time in the TV clips they release in the month leading up to a movie's release. At one point, it's like, what's the point of going to see the movie?
This is the realm of the internet, the place where many hang out for one reason or another, while others plow on with their lives outside of the realm of the internet, TV or movies.
And it is the same realm where people want to be coerced into seeing movies by seeing as much of it as possible. Or the same realm where people steal movies online so they can say they are previewing it before buying. (I'm still laughing at that idiocy.)
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In the end, well, I can only surmise that if we don't want to be massively spoiled or have the fun taken out of seeing something, we have to be on top of it and catch the TV show or movie as early as possible after it debuts. If it matters that much.
Unless it's the Olympics that take place on the other side of the world, then you have to accept that the outlets will be airing scores and such as soon as they can and you WILL be spoiled. Unless you dodge all TV until you watch what you want.
I knew that if I didn't see Star Wars on opening day, things would have come out that would have spoiled it for me, then I would have probably not gone to see it. And sometimes, I just want to go see something in the theater and get away from my daily grind. Sometimes.
But be it as it may, then again, that is probably another marketing factor distributors like seeing.
And that is the web, as we know it, and there's not much more we can do about it except cover our eyes, plug our ears and yell "na na na na" as loud as we can so we don't even overhear spoilers.
The big guys out there won't look out for us, so we have to do that for ourselves.
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*Ah, FFS means "For F* Sake!" So my first reply FB'er was a sanctimonious know-it-all ass. Got it. He probably knows who Neegan killed in The Walking Dead too, right?
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Game of Thrones on Amazon,
.facebook.com/TVGuide
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