The Food Network is one of my favorite channels, I admit it. I can tune in just about anytime and enjoy Ace of Cakes or Good Eats or Boy Meets Grill or Paula Deen, whatever. Generally speaking, they seem to have a good, consistent and enjoyable programming package. Okay, that's what's good about FN. Now for the sour to go with the sweet. Last night I was catching up with The Next Food Network Star, watching the second showing of the reality competition show because I wasn't able to watch the original broadcast. No big deal, right? Wrong!
Half-way through the broadcast, before the judges had decided who was going to be asked to leave, setting up the final three contestants, Food Network showed a commercial promoting the next episode. There, clear as day, were the final three. There was no reason to watch the rest of the show I was engrossed in because the promo had already tipped off the big finish!
I can only guess that someone blew it in programming because there's no way that ad should have run till after the episode.
You know, this never happens on Bravo -- the king of the rebroadcast -- at least I've never seen it. Not with Project Runway, not with Top Chef.
Bottom line, that commercial spoiled the episode -- and the competition -- for me.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-18-2008 @ 9:55AM
Jason said...
Join the 21st century and get a DVR and skip the commercials. Problem solved.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 9:59AM
jon said...
Unfortunately pretty much all the networks do this (or at least the ones that re-run first-run reality programming). I watch way too much TV so I often have to TiVo later airings of a program when there's too many things on at once and I always make sure to keep the remote handy so I can skip through the breaks as quickly as possible. Incredibly annoying.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 10:08AM
Zach said...
I recently bought the Mad Men DVD, and on the first disc, before the menu, there was a preview for season two which pretty much showed every major plot point, luckily I had only missed the last two episodes so it wasn't that bad for me but I might be a little miffed if I was a first time viewer.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 10:40AM
danawhitaker said...
I'm not going to be rude enough to imply that everyone should pay $7-15 a month for a DVR to avoid this issue, because I'm opposed to the concept of paying a monthly fee for a glorified VCR. But when you're watching programming and you're behind, you have to expect that this kind of thing is going to happen. Now, if this had happened during the original airing of the episode, I'd be upset. But, as someone who time shifts a LOT of the shows they watch (I have a small child) by the time I get around to watching something it may be a week or two past when it originally aired. My friends understand this and avoid spoiling me, but occasionally I'll catch promos for an upcoming episode by accident, or I'll be chatting with acquaintances who don't understand my unorthodox and delayed methods of watching things and things will slip. I simply accept it as one of the risks of not watching everything at the first run.
For what it's worth, I've found I'm personally often as interested in the "how" of who left Next Food Network Star than just the "who". So I still will watch an episode even if I know who the next person to get the boot is. That's just me though, I can see how for some people it's merely about the "who" aspect.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 10:41AM
danawhitaker said...
I'm not going to be rude enough to imply that everyone should pay $7-15 a month for a DVR to avoid this issue, because I'm opposed to the concept of paying a monthly fee for a glorified VCR. But when you're watching programming and you're behind, you have to expect that this kind of thing is going to happen. Now, if this had happened during the original airing of the episode, I'd be upset. But, as someone who time shifts a LOT of the shows they watch (I have a small child) by the time I get around to watching something it may be a week or two past when it originally aired. My friends understand this and avoid spoiling me, but occasionally I'll catch promos for an upcoming episode by accident, or I'll be chatting with acquaintances who don't understand my unorthodox and delayed methods of watching things and things will slip. I simply accept it as one of the risks of not watching everything at the first run.
For what it's worth, I've found I'm personally often as interested in the "how" of who left Next Food Network Star than just the "who". So I still will watch an episode even if I know who the next person to get the boot is. That's just me though, I can see how for some people it's merely about the "who" aspect.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 1:28PM
MarcDom7 said...
A glorified VCR that knows all your season passes, records two things at once on the same machine and giving you the ability to watch a recorded thing at the same time, allows you to set up recordings weeks in advance and knows every conflict before you do?
Yeah, just like a VCR.
7-18-2008 @ 8:29PM
RobynM said...
Generally I agree with you, but unfortunately, I've seen a fair amount of first run programming where the breaks spoil the upcoming footage. Not just in reality programming, either.
7-18-2008 @ 10:49AM
Erin said...
I noticed this too, when the show was announcing the top 4 contestants. I guess they are assuming people are watching the show for the 2nd time? Or they just don't care.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 11:02AM
Justin said...
You watch The Next Food Network Star? It's a horrible program and--let's face it--Guy has been the only gold they've struck doing the show and he's a terrible cooking show host; he's just good at Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and other hosting duties not built on him cooking.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 11:28AM
Joshua Stein said...
Isn't this only the second season of this show? So Guy would be the only gold they have found, since he has been the only winner?
Anyway, this is one of the only reality competition shows I watch, and I think it is fun. My wife and I also time-shift this show, and she had the end spoiled for her by a commercial, but since it was a few days later, she could only gripe so much. But we still watched, and still had plenty to talk about.
7-18-2008 @ 12:25PM
bluefunnel said...
Actually, this would be the fourth season, but the first season was only five episode long. Guy was the winner of season two. The show hosted by the winner of season three only aired for six episode(she said she was offered more but chose not to).
I think Food Network tends to be the biggest spoiler of things. Even during the shows they give pretty much everything away in their "coming up" bits. I don't want to know whose cake falls on "Challenge" before the cake actually falls.
Reply
7-18-2008 @ 4:55PM
GL said...
@danawhitaker: I agree with most of your points.
Reply
7-19-2008 @ 2:16PM
jenni said...
the same thing happened a few years ago (two i think) on msnbc with a poker show. i forget the name of the show but the format was all heads-up play and tournament style rounds. the show was an hour long once a week and it had five shows. during one of the shows during week four (i think) they showed a commercial to buy the dvd set and THEY SHOWED THE WINNER!!! i couldn't believe it! it was so stupid!
would it be that hard to not include such details in a thirty second spot?!
Reply
7-19-2008 @ 2:18AM
Mike said...
On one episode this season you actually saw the balls of a contestant when he was climbing out of bed. Not something I generally look for, but it was hard to miss. Also, DVR confirmed this.
Reply
7-19-2008 @ 6:50AM
Matt said...
Bravo used to do this. Back in the days of Josh Malina's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," even during the first-run of the last qualifying episode, they'd show a commercial for next week's championship, making it clear who had won the show you were watching.
This was somewhere in the middle of a two-hour show that had previously not been aired. I don't know if complaints made them fix it, but yeah, they used to do it.
Reply
7-30-2008 @ 9:54AM
Barry said...
If you think that was bad, I was on the Food Network site the day after the three finalists were named, and the website accidently posted the "exit interviews" with the two that didn't make the win...from next week's show. They spoiled the winner of the whole thing 6 days before it aired. So I knew who won when we watched it live the next week. The videos were pulled a few hours later, but the damage was done.
Reply