TDT has announced:
Once upon a time, people at a site called Survivor Sucks would ravenously scavenge Survivor ads, interviews, and editing patterns, searching for clues as to how the show was likely to unfold. It was a collective effort, democratic, participatory. The pieces fit together like a logic puzzle, and a surprising amount of accurate forecasting emerged. Every few seasons, a Snewser or a ChillOne or a Mersaydeez would have additional, sometimes extensive, information from inside sources, but for the most part, the spoilerverse operated under its own group power, analyzing press photos and scraps of challenge footage, and detecting likely winners. There was a certain thrill in watching Survivor each week (even in the seasons that sucked, like Fiji), thinking you knew how it would turn out, but never being entirely sure, and occasionally being surprised when events unfolded differently than the collective wisdom of the boards had agreed they most likely would. As the MeSS Hall said, "May we always be a little wrong."
Even as recently as Tocantins, with a few scraps of external info (Coach's weight loss, the pre-merge recap shot of the F4 IC), Sucks and other spoiler sites were able to accurately predict that J.T. would win, with no input from all-knowing sources. But all that changed in Samoa, when the ultimate boundary was crossed in spoiling: someone decided to just call up a contestant, and started asking for spoilers. This had never been done before, because as everyone at Sucks and beyond knew, contestants faced a $5 million lawsuit from CBS/SEG if they leaked information. But boy, did the spoilers come. And with that, the era of overspoiling began.
Minute details of Samoa, then Heroes vs. Villains, then Nicaragua -- challenges, boot orders, quotes, things even ending up cut from the show -- piled up on the boards. From the perspective of a casual fan who just wants to spend a second or two to learn who gets booted each week, this was awesome: this information was readily available, and almost never wrong. For the remaining few veterans who actually enjoyed spending their time analyzing vidcaps and parsing interviews, as the ultimate Survivor puzzle challenge, this was less exciting. There was nothing left to figure out, really. Some, including this site, or MeSS, or Blows, soldiered on, guiding our horse-drawn vidcap analysis buggies alongside the spoiler freeway, while the leak-worshipping newcomers sped by, sneering. This was missyae, SurvivorsUnite and blackwhale's world now.
Which is fine. CBS obviously cares very little about the show any more, and has already cut off the lifeblood of traditional analysis, the ads. As of today, two weeks before the premiere of Redemption Island, CBS's ads have shown Jeff Probst, a torch, and cartoonishly gargantuan greenscreen footage of Rob and Russell. Not a single in-game image, nothing from challenges, not even a glimpse of the new crop of 16 contestants (apart from the 10-second non-CBS Sprint preview ads, which are cut from their pre-game interviews).
So this site is moving on. We'll find other outlets to continue covering the show, even if it's one as unwatchable as a season with Rob, Russell, hidden idols galore and the extra safety net of Redemption Island would appear to be on paper. We'll do weekly recaps, repurpose vidcaps in unflattering ways, make snippy videos, mock the host and Mark Burnett. You know, the usual stuff we attempted to cram into our coverage when it was spoiling-centered. It'll probably be about the same, unless it's not. Whatever. Things change.
From here on out, the Survivometer will be updated only after the show airs, to keep a record of the contestant's show performance. Likewise, the Calendar will be updated as the show airs. We'll do no further updates to the spoilers section, but will add a recaps section and a blog (as a catch-all for other content). If Survivor can re-boot contestants that have been voted out this season, we can re-boot our site.
TDT was one of a handful of "pure" spoilers still doing meticulous screencap analysis of the weekly previews. I find this incredibly sad...
As a viewer, I turned to his updates every week for the latest in depth analysis of the challenges and the outcomes, and usually got a giggle at the snarky wit as well.
Contestant revelations are one thing, but "evidence" obtained from a sharp eye and a inquisitive mind mean SO much more. Yes, knowing who was to go was interesting...but knowing HOW they got there was what kept and keeps me enthralled. And no one does that better than TDT.
Your spoiler work will be greatly missed Jeff, thank you for all the past glories!!
And will look forward to the new dawn at TDT as well, in what ever form you choose!
