They've done it twice already.
For Angel, they were hyping all last week about how Spike returns to town, but it was supposed to be a surprise that he shows up, and so he shows up, and the show ends.

for Alias, they were hyping about Melissa George joining the cast and that she was Vaughn's wife, well we find that out at the end of the episode.

My point is, that networks should at least attempt to keep casting a secret to some degree and not even mention it in the previews.

The networks think that they need to show the surprises like that to get people to watch.

Spike's return was never supposed to be a surprise. It was talked about and promoted ever since Angel was renewed, by everyone involved. Whedon, who wrote and directed the premiere, gave numerous interviews about it. Whedon was talking openly about and promoting Spike-on-Angel before he actually wrote the script. Further, he knew going into writing the script that Spike's face was going to be plastered all over everywhere. The specific details--Which, so far as I know, the WB didn't splash all over their promo materials--were supposed to be a surprise, but the purpose was not to have you completely shocked that Spike's returned--The purpose was to get the audience excited about the return, and eager to tune into the second episode to find out what's going on.


I'm not sure what about Melissa George you thought was the spoiler--We knew the character existed; they told us who played said character. They weren't playing up the mystery of Melissa George, or anything.

I've seen promos that blew major surprises before, but I don't really think either of the scenarios count. If the entire production staff is eager to blab on about something, I can't fault the network for continuing the hype.

My point is that we hear about this person or character returing, and then have them at the very end.

I noticed this on Angel and Alias as well and it bugs the hell outta me. And then they also did it with Scrubs last week. They promoted Scott Foley as a guest star and even showed a few clips of him in the ad (none of which appeared in last weeks episode). Any surprise that was supposed to come from the last 5 seconds of the show when he finally appeared were ruined.

I'm almost to the point where I'm going to swear off previews totally. The only problem is you can't escape them if you're watching other shows "live". I'm so sick of seeing ER's preview that I can't wait until it airs tonight so I can stop hearing Boy, after that there's really no point in watching the episode is there?

Wasn't he in the middle of the episode too?

i'm getting sick of prEviews PERIOD.

I "skip" all previews (and commercials)...

God bless Tivo!

Previews are e-vil!

I don’t think I’ve seen a movie for the first time on TV for over a decade. The “Big 3” (especially ABC) have this nasty habit of showing scenes from the following segment just before going to commercial. I know this is slightly different from the original complaint, but it shows the mentality (sic) of the suits.

As I mentioned in a Law & Order thread, I find that show particularly bad for spoilers in commercials.

I respectfully, completely disagree with you.

They weren't playing it up? She says "I'm Vaughn's wife"... you see Syd's shocked reaction... BAM! Credits/cliffhanger.

It was obviously supposed to be a shock... otherwise they wouldn't have saved her until the very end.

When you say "they told us who played said character" -- what do you mean? Who told us?

This is where we differ, I think--I think she was placed there for cliffhanger effect, not shock effect. Having her come in at the end of the episode makes you eager to turn in next time to see how Syd reacts. Had Melissa George been around the entire episode (as the anonymous replacement), instead of just that one brief scene, I'd think differently.

I see it as functionally the same as Angel's Spike revelation. Everybody knows it's coming, but it's still exciting, because you want to know what happens next. Place the same scene in the middle of an episode, and the 'hook' is gone.

Quote:

When you say "they told us who played said character" -- what do you mean? Who told us?

In this case, I was talking about ABC. They revealed the casting of a character we knew existed, and it stood to reason that the character would appear in the near future.

I think the Alias cast and crew was talking about it over the summer, too, but I don't follow that show's media coverage.

Hmm, I might have been distracted in the middle and missed it. I only saw him as he walked off the elevator and said hello.

The whole scene with Elliot and her second car door at the smoothie place was about him.

They did this in Season 1 with Dennis Hopper. All the promos: "Dennis Hopper mania! It's practically the Dennis Hopper show!" Then he shows up at the end of the episode and has like one line.

actually, Hopper shows up around 1/4th of the way through and had a couple of lines if I remeber it correctly (I'll have to check the dvd)