[starry]

To me this is one of the things that makes it weaker than Big Brother (at its best anyway). Only one show a week combined with the fact that it isn't live means the only way people on the internet can really talk about it during the week is through speculation and spoilers. Some actually seem to get a kick out of knowing what happens before it does, which I don't really understand.

Survivor is the same though I think that show is weaker as it is set in just one location and it doesn't have that interesting two team members dynamic. Instead it's a show in theory about two tribes, but they all get merged anyway at some point so that doesn't matter that much. So in reality it's just about individuals trying to deceive each other and all alliances are just temporary things where people hardly believe one another anyway.

[roninmedia]

The culture of spoiling occurs even when the show has not aired.

Because of the open nature of producing the show and with rise of its popularity and social media, the more obsessed fans know about the show before it even airs. They may be on the lookout for route markers or contestants and they will take the information to the internet.

For example, on realityfan, there are ongoing spoiler threads for seasons (Australia before it aired, TAR 21, TAR Philippines) that may be in production or have completed production, but yet to be aired.

[starry]

Yeh I know. Apparently the production crew actually set up decoys to try and fool the spoiler people out there, so they take someone who has been eliminated and put them in some later task so people think they have lasted longer than they have. But apparently with this season the final 6 is already known and spoiled.

When it is actually aired they always have these previews in both The Amazing Race and Survivor which can spoil important elements of the next episode. Because there is only one show a week I suppose they feel they need it to give people more to discuss, though really I think I prefer now not to see the previews as they can give away too much sometimes. A good example was in AR20 where they gave away that the first team to arrive at the finish line got turned back.