Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

After yet another L&O episode ruined by an overly descriptive blurb, I've had enough. I quickly learned to avoid reading that stuff after getting burned the first few times a year ago when I first got the HD-DVR, but sometimes I do out of habit. And every single time, I regret it.

And when I say spoilers, I mean it. It's literally short of giving a way the ending. For example, in the episode I was just watching, the reveal those imbeciles decided to put in the program description occurs 45 minutes into it. And they decided to put that in the blurb. This is fucking ridiculous.

Is there anything I can do about this?

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H

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

I think the synopsis is provided by the network and Comcast or Time-Warner just run it as they get it. Since I'm on TWC, I could compare the descriptions to see if they are the same, but I didn't see the L&O description. I do know that this week's description of Ghost Whisperer solely revolved around an event that only happened in the last scene and was not only somewhat spoilerish but didn't really capture what the episode was about.

I guess the only thing you can do is not read them. I doubt if Comcast would do anything about it even if you complained.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

I hear ya, Holadem, i've had my share of fits reading those things, I eventually stopped.

They also can't seem to make up their mind whether or not they like a movie, for instance it will have the title, one and then they say "in this chilling and suspensful edge-of-your-seat thriller..."

Well is the damn thing any good or not lol!?

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Film ratings and descriptions, like episode synopses, are not written by people at the cable and satellite companies. They all come from the broadcasters or cable channels (the same people responsible for those spoiler-filled or misleading "next week on..." promos ) The movie descriptions are usually cribbed from studio publicity material, while the movie "star ratings" usually come from a reference book of film criticism or database that aggregates reviews at the time of a film's release. Hence the wild difference between the 1 star rating (from, say, one of Leonard Maltin's books on Movies on TV) and the breathless prose originally written by a studio flack trying to sell the movie to the network carrying it.

Some cable companies may edit this stuff a little to fit their own formats, but everybody (including your local newspaper TV supplement) is being spoon-fed pretty much the same stuff from the same handful of sources.

Regards,

Joe

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Switch companys.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

That's a little drastic lol.

Just stop reading them, it's hard sometimes it's true but once you stop for a while you'll get used to not looking.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Survivor has one of those typical misleading "next week...." promos. It ends with a ball freeze-framed in the air, on my gosh, what will be the result????

Nine times out of ten it will end up being completely meaningless, just some teaser trying to stir up interest.

I rarely watch previews any longer and barely read the brief Comcoast descriptions. Just glance through it to see if it looks interesting or if I've seen it before.

So much of television has just become white noise that I completely ignore it, literally looking right through it and not paying attention. There could be a nuclear attack on Boston and I wouldn't notice, I'd just figure it was another silly news crawler about the digitial TV switch, or there's two inches of snow falling, in the middle of winter, in a place that always gets snow.

Thank God for DVDs, (although On-Demand isn't bad) where you don't have to deal with all that crap.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

As opposed to reading it for pleasure? The thing is only 3 lines long, if that. So that glance is often enough to fuck it up.

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H

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

As an employee of one of the "same handful of sources" that "spoon-feeds pretty much the same stuff," and who writes blurbs that appear on DVRs/Web sites/newspaper listings/etc, let me shed some light on this topic.

I work for a company that provides TV/movie listings information to cable/satellite providers, online sources, newspapers. We're basically the "middle man" between the networks/studios and our clients (and ultimately, the TV viewers who see all this info). Basically, we get the information from the networks, rejigger it to fit our format/guidelines, and then send it on to our clients.

To answer Holadem's question, you can blame the networks for spoiling the information in the DVR blurbs. Most of the broadcast networks send a description that's usually about 2 small-to-medium length paragraphs for every episode they air. We (i.e. my company) have to rewrite that to include what we think is the relevant information in the 2-3 sentences that you eventually see on your DVR.

The problem is that page of info is all we know about the episode, we don't see them ahead of time. So my personal thinking on it is if the network includes it in their description of the episode, it's fair game for me to include in the blurb I write, except in obvious situations where I can tell something is most likely a spoiler. But again, all we have to go by is the description the network sends out, without seeing the episode and in most cases with never having seen the show at all so knowing nothing about it, except for the weekly episode descriptions we get. So something that seems simple enough that we don't think would spoil the episode for someone may be a huge spoiler for someone who is a regular viewer of the show.

So to summarize, blame the networks - not the cable company, not my company. All we have to go by is the info the network sends us about the episodes. As for your question, Holadem, about whether there's anything you can do about it - as others have said (and you seem to try to do), avoid reading the blurbs. That's the only way to be sure to avoid spoilers because the networks are going to continue sending it the same way they do, including what viewers consider to be spoilers. You could try writing the networks to complain but how often does complaining to corporate America actually result in something being done about it?

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

if you have the typical comcast Moto remote, hitting the "enter" button in the middle of the arrow keys will bring up the
2 or 3 line guide just telling you what the show is not the show's content.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Thanks for the insight. It doesn't solve the problem but it definitely explains a lot.

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H

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

I hadn't noticed the spoilers until I read the synopsis for Brothers and Sisters a week ago. The only two things mentioned were scene that occurred almost at the very end of the show. I have been avoiding reading the guide for this show.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

The only thing I use the channel guide info blurbs for is to determine if the episode is new or a repeat. That is it. No use further reading something that can potentially spoil the episode for you.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Scott_J, if you have any insight (and are still reading this thread), can you shed some light on who "flags" episodes? I sometimes get episodes that are new but my DVR doesn't schedule them to record. This week, my DVR is set to record Chuck even though it is a repeat. I assume episodes are flagged as either new or repeat and when they are misflagged, the above can happen. I'm not looking for someone to blame, but I am curious to know if I'm right about there being flags and the flags being the cause for these issues. Thanks.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

You have the right idea, Greg. When the information is provided to us, we flag the episode as new. Of course it also depends on how a DVR handles the information, which varies depending on the company and I obviously don't know the specifics of that.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Thanks, Scott. It sounds like you've got a pretty cool job.

Speaking of the DVR being at fault, you might be on to something. I just remembered that last week, my upstairs DVR (a Motorola) recorded a scheduled program just fine, but the downstairs DVR missed it. So, it's obviously flagged correctly, but one DVR just misinterpreted something.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

Every now and then, my DVR will glitch like that too. Not enough for me to call and complain, but maybe once a month a show won't get recorded when it should have been. One time I happened to catch it when it was supposed to be recording something, and wasn't, and I turned it over to the channel it was supposed to be recording. The live program listing said "To be announced" rather than what the show actually was; maybe the flags on occasion get garbled or screwed up during transmission, causing the DVR to not record the show?

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

I had the same problem with Chuck. I have the DVR set to only record new episodes, but it recorded Monday's repeat episode. This is the first time it has happened on my Comcast DVR.

Re: Fed up with spoilers in Comcast's program descriptions.

That's because it's a Romantic Comedy . No wonder why it only got 1 star if it ends up being a chilling thriller. LOL