RFF TAR Detective Boingo interviewed by CNET's Daniel Terdima, reveals how the RFF TAR detectives spoil the race to the dismay of the producers.
February 22, 2011 4:00 AM PST
How online tools spoil reality show secretsby Daniel Terdiman
For the producers of a reality show like "The Amazing Race," the headaches probably don't get much bigger than those caused by the TAR Detectives.
A global, loosely formed group of sleuths dedicated to uncovering and publicly revealing spoilers about TAR, or "The Amazing Race," the detectives have proven what the producers of any number of reality shows have learned: It's nearly impossible to keep what happens during filming a secret from those determined to find out.
And thanks to the growing number of online and social-media tools available, and the vast numbers of people who use them, ferreting out ahead of time what happens on reality shows appears to be getting easier and easier to do.
'The Bachelor' is just one of many reality show whose fans can easily find accurate spoilers online any time they want.
(Credit: ABC)
For years, spoiler sites have been great at offering up informed guesses of what might happen--like who will be voted out, or who will perform, on the next episode of shows like "Survivor," "American Idol," "The Bachelor," and the like. But bloodhounds who frequent popular fan sites and forums have shown how easy it is to exploit the fact that these days, widespread use of Twitter and Facebook can lead those who know where to look to all kinds of accurate conclusions about what will happen throughout a season of some of these shows.
"We can actually draw up our own map" of where "The Amazing Race" contestants will go during a forthcoming season, said Boingo, a longtime member of the TAR Detectives. "In fact, we actually have the entire course pretty well laid out."
Boingo, a technology industry professional from Northern California who asked that his real name not be used, is a longtime member of the TAR Detectives and a habitue of the Reality Fan Forum, a site where spoilers about "The Amazing Race" and other reality shows are given prominent play.
He explained that in the early days of "The Amazing Race," those interested in figuring out and disseminating spoilers were limited to keeping an eagle eye on previews for upcoming episodes and using services like Flickr and Photobucket to try to make assumptions based on what little the producers of the show offered up
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