Why Do Shows Like Lost Reveal Spoilers?

There's a real science to teasing/releasing tidbits on upcoming storylines, without giving away anything

Why do shows like Lost reveal spoilers? Is it not in the best interest of networks to keep me in the dark like I want to be?
—MarieDevers, via Twitter

What spoilers? You mean the strong hint that Dominic Monaghan will return to Lost next season? Easy. That kind of deal could never stay under the Dharma hatch lid until January, show insiders tell me, so of course the network is going to seize control of the situation and handle it in its own way.

Or are you talking about that funky chicken commercial Lost producers revealed at Comic-Con? That's not a spoiler. That's a funky chicken commercial. One that won't even appear during the upcoming season.

As for the "why" behind said chicken commercial...

...show insiders tell me they serve two purposes, neither of which is keeping people in the dark like you "want to be." Instead they serve as a thank-you to diehard fans—while getting them all het up for the next season of time-travelin' and polar-bear-chasin' and Evangeline Lilly-swappin'. Will the funky chicken come between Sawyer and Kate? Will it? Will it?

Of course those kinds of fan presentations really don't spoil anything.

Our own Team WWK says so.

"Networks and producers don't release spoilers," E! Online's crack TV expert Jennifer Godwin tells me. "That's the art of being a good show runner: phrasing something so it's a good tease without giving away the farm." Or the island.

For the record, most TV producers, writers, publicists and commentators consider a spoiler to be a specific plot reveal. During the Chuck panel at Comic-Con, our TV team heard from producer Josh Schwartz that Chuck and Sarah will go through "something very emotional and traumatic," but "it's going to be very, very good." That's a tease.

"The spoiler would be, 'Sarah stabs Chuck in the gut and he bleeds to death and then she cries,'" Godwin explains.

And before you write in asking whether that's a real spoiler—I would tell you, but you prefer to remain in the dark.

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