SurvivorSpoilers

From Networked Advocacy

The CBS show Survivor has been one of the most successful reality shows ever. The concept is simple - contestants compete to become the last one "on the island" while the viewing audience watched with voyeuristic glee.

But not all of Survivor's 20 million viewers were content enough to just sit back and watch. Many of its fans began to come together to try to "spoil" the results. Since the show is filmed months before it airs, there is the possibility of finding out who won before it even starts. Because of this, the producers of the show have everyone involved sign very strict contracts prohibiting them from saying or leaking anything. The Survivor winner is one of the most closely guarded secrets in television.

But a group of hard-core fans were determined to break through the fortress of secrecy that executive producer Mark Burnett had created. Through the internet these fans, who call themselves spoilers, began meeting and sharing information. The spoiler community became a force to be reckoned with - so much so that the show's producers spent quite a bit of energy and resources in trying to divert and mislead them.

Several things made this network work:

1) Communications: the communication abilities that were available online were key. People not only came together in a virtual space (the online forum) to discuss, they were able to share photographs, images, links and other information quite easily.

2) Shared Resources: They would access satellite photographs of the camp, watch taped episodes frame by frame, conduct extensive content and production analysis of each episode. They would then share this information with the rest of the group and see what they could come up with.

No individual fan could know everything there was to know, and there were core actors who were instrumental in getting some of the vital details. There were also members of this community who chipped in information when they had it, but who weren't major actors.

3) Feedback: The group would also work together to scrutinize information that came in. If someone posted a tip, the group would analyze and debate over the veracity of the claim. The group's collective knowledge soon became greater than the sum of each individual's knowledge.

4) Social Ties: One of the most famous spoiler groups was called Survivor Sucks. Although clearly this was a gourp of people who were huges fans, they started off as just a way to get together, recap and make fun of contestants, and talk about the show. It was a very social place to be.

4) Vision: These weren't just fans idling chatting about their favorite TV show. These people were on a mission - to spoil the Survivor results. This shared vision framed everything they did. In fact, the one thing that has led to the weakening of this network was not anything that Mark Burnett could throw out at them. It was the accomplishment of that goal. In the Survivor:Amazon season (2003) one spoiler provided information early on that ended up being correct. When it became apparent that he had indeed "spoiled" Survivor, the network began to fall apart. "It wasn't as fun anymore," many spoilers said. "What was the point?"

Looking at the development of the Survivor spoiler community is interesting on many levels. Not only does it show us the potential power of networks, it also exposes shifts in how we interact with media.