I’m of two minds on this. On one hand, there were a couple of weeks this season of Project Runway where I did get tanked after work, but Roommate and I usually watch the show no matter how late it is. There was just one week where I didn’t watch it on Wednesday and I studiously and effectively avoided all Internetting that would have revealed who got auf’d. That was a really boring day.

If it had been on the front page of The New York Times, though, I would’ve seen it, and I think the responsibility for things like that depends on who you are. TiFaux is a TV blog; I expect to hear about what happened last night. I don’t expect it on, say, CNN. And yet more mainstream, non-entertainment media seems to be more willfully oblivious and inclined to careless spoilers. They’re the ones who need to catch up to the way people consume entertainment now. Because they totally would give away the end of The Crying Game in a really lousy headline.

On the other hand, when you have something narrative that’s a season-long storyline, especially when it’s something like HBO or Dexter, I think there should be more leeway for people catching up later. I found out what happened in the first season finale of Friday Night Lights when I was halfway through the season, but that was my own damn fault (it was on Television Without Pity). I don’t necessarily think all media should tiptoe around discussing the last episode of The Sopranos, but putting some shit below the fold, or at least not in a plot summary, wouldn’t kill anyone, you know?

I realize they just put opera in there to be funny, but opera spoilers are allowed as soon as the fat lady sings, if not earlier. It’s so hard for most people to understand what’s going on in your average opera that they often print a full summary in the program, and on the website. Knowing the heroine throws herself into a river at the end doesn’t ruin the opera. They do the same thing at Shakespeare in the Park.

I disagree on the 24-hour window for reality shows. I think it’s the responsibility of the reader to not read a TELEVISION BLOG THAT CONSTANTLY DISCUSSES PROJECT RUNWAY if you haven’t watched last night’s Project Runway. If this were an opera blog, I can understand why a reader would be annoyed if you talked about Nimma getting kicked off Top Chef right after it happened, but this is a television blog. If we don’t talk about what’s happening on television right now, we have nothing to talk about.

I didn’t watch the series finale of The Wire until Monday night, so on Monday I couldn’t read The AV Club, Slate, or Salon—my favorite websites—because they were all discussing the last episode of The Wire. I make my own choices when to watch a TV show, and when to read about it on the Internet. It’s easy to do. The Internet keeps stuff around forever.

Yeah, I have to say the only part of that chart I deeply disagreed with was the opera one. If I didn’t know ahead of time that Isolde dies of grief, I would’ve had no idea what was going on. (Dad, do you still read this? Hi! Thanks for the opera spoilers!)

In general I agree with the Chicago Trib article that the NYM article linked to — a certain level of spoiler is necessary to entice viewers. What are trailers, after all, but plot spoilers? What about “next week on Lost…”? I personally love “next week on” — it gives me a glimpse of what’s to come, and makes me more excited to see it.

What I don’t like is spoilers with malicious intent — when someone says something or gives away information just to prove that they’re smarter than you. They can’t resist rubbing it in your face, not because they have insight or analysis, but just because they KNOW it and you don’t (see: that asshole in the audience of Aziz Ansari’s standup at Union Hall who Brusteined the Wire).

I agree that it should be the reader’s responsibility to shield themselves from obvious sources of television news if they really, really don’t want to be spoiled.

In practice, though, I tend to take the populist approach — wanting to protect the people who don’t have that kind of willpower. Hence, my day-after Project Runway posts are always behind jumps. When I did the morning news, I would always say things like “TV Guide talks to the person who died on Lost last night.”

I’m not saying it’s intellectually right. I’m saying it’s what I do.

Eh…

Yeah, the opera thing is kind of like spoiling Hamlet or Titanic (for adults. I’m not saying go around telling 10-year-olds that everyone dies). Knowing the end of some things won’t affect your enjoyment. There was some poster in the NY Mag comments who said he/she would be angry at someone who revealed the end of the season finale of M*A*S*H, which is ludicrous. Obviously, the Korean War was all in a snow globe owned by a mentally handicapped kid.

I’ve been one of the whiny gits in the past, so I think I should lay out my thoughts.

I think it’s very reasonable for a blog like TiFaux to discuss the previous night’s TV, and that will naturally include spoilers. So it IS unreasonable not to expect them from a site of this nature.

Here’s my howevers:

The name of the site does suggest the implication that people might not be watching TV live. I’m in the UK, so my US television consumption relies on [totally legal and legitimate means - Anti-Piracy Ed], which often aren’t available until the day after broadcast. So I’m often a day behind. But to a certain extent, that’s MY problem. The site shouldn’t have to cater to the minority.

But there’s no reason not to put spoilers below a jump. I read TiFaux via Google Reader normally, so I see the stories as they appear. If I click on the header, and read the first line, “Top Chef shoots Dale in face with gun!” then the episode is spoilt before I had a chance to look away.

I love reading TiFaux, and the daily news is superb. I’d hate to not be able to read it for fear of spoilers and be days behind on news stories, etc.

So if possible, can there be a jump before big end-of-episode reveals?