Secrets of a former spoiler-holic – Guest Clack

In more recent years, spoilers have taken a whole new life. Some of the major networks have made it clear they don’t like spoilers, and they won’t deal with sites that peddle spoilers. Those sites that decide to continue spoiling anyway have competition much larger and far more resourceful than they ever have before: the major entertainment news outlets. You know, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, E!. Those kinds of places. But because there is such a stigma attached to the word “spoiler,” they don’t use it. Instead, they call them “scoops.” And unlike many sites that focus on spoilers, these larger outlets have people who can do this full time, who are out in Hollywood or New York, who attend the right parties, and who have the right people on speed dial.

But where exactly do spoilers come from? That’s been a question that has alluded a lot of people — especially the networks and the studios — for years. If only they could find the source of leaks, they could shut it down, or at least throw up a dam here and there.

There is no single source of spoilers, and that’s the problem. A studio might be able to build one roadblock, but then a side-road is found. It might not be paved, and it might not have street signs, but all one needs is the right vehicle to traverse, and the spoiler will still get out.

Over the years, a vast majority of the spoilers I received have come from scripts. Until we stopped carrying spoilers at the beginning of 2009 at Airlock Alpha and its related sites, I would prefer shooting scripts over draft scripts, because much of what you would read there would end up in the finished product, instead of being written out in later drafts, or ending up on the cutting room floor.

Scripts are great because you can get the entire context you need on information, and it also allows you to pick and choose which
information is best. For example, I got a shooting script of Battlestar Galactica: Razor before the first scene was even shot, and I used that script to find necessary information I thought would be good, but still following the strict guidelines I had set a decade before. One scene that really grabbed my attention was the fact that Adm. Cain had a love interest … and it was one of the Number Sixes. There had been such heavy talk about the lack of gay themes and characters in Battlestar Galactica that I thought this would be a perfect spoiler to share when buzz for the telemovie died down. And it worked great.

The key was to find the scenes that work, and then talk to either the person who supplied the script, or another source on the show who would be willing to talk anonymously. Of course, many of them would be skeptical over whether you actually had the information, so I would have to tell the source, “OK, I know Adm. Cain is a lesbian. Tell me about it.” And they would talk.

Through all the years of doing spoilers, my only goal has been to get more people watching the shows we were spoiling. There are a lot of amateurs out there who receive scripts in a similar manner, but instead of using them the right way, they would instead publish the scripts, something that happened in an earlier season of Battlestar Galactica that understandably made Ronald D. Moore very upset. It made me upset, too.

There is a market out there for people who like to start a story, but then flip to the end to see what happens, and then continue reading from where they left off to further enjoy the journey to the end they already know. I mean, did knowing the ship would sink ruin Titanic? Was it hard to watch the Star Wars prequels because you knew what was going to happen to Anakin and Amidala?

Because of how much I would receive spoilers, the times I would be surprised by something I saw on television would be very rare. But when that did happen, I would treat it like it was my birthday. However, there are other times when I like knowing the end, because I want to see what it takes to get there. It’s a plot device even writers use, sometimes showing us the end (like Apollo floating through space with a battle taking place in front of him), and then taking us by the hand and guiding us through the obstacles it took to get there.

If spoilers are done right, I can’t imagine any reason why networks, studios, producers, writers — you name it — would be upset. I count many scriptwriters as people who communicate with me quite regularly, and all of them know that we used to do spoilers for a living. None of them would ever feed spoilers, but they understood that what we did was for the benefit of everyone — including the writers and the studios — and not as a way to try and trump them.

I am happy that my sites are to a point where they no longer need to depend on spoilers in order to succeed. We still plan to use our very well-placed sources for other information, like cancellation of shows and such, but no longer for plot points and the like … at least not without some official approval first.

But just because some news outlets like Airlock Alpha and others are moving away from spoilers and scoops doesn’t mean the market is going away. In fact, I think it’s only growing … and as long as there’s a huge demand for spoilers out there, others will step in to fill it. And sadly, they may not have the same motivations — to get more eyeballs watching these shows — as we did.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Mar 16, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT