"If you knew beforehand who would win the reality show Survivor, what would you do?"

What would you do if you happened to stumble across clues that would help you determine who would be the winner of one of the reality television shows- Survivor? That is exactly what happened to the author of a book entitled The Spoiler Revealing Secrets of Survivor.

One month before Survivor Amazon was to be aired on television in February 2003, the author, known as The Chill One (the author has preferred to remain anonymous), was vacationing with some buddies during New Year's Eve in the Brazilian Amazon. Fortunately, he happened to be in the right place at the right time, when he discovered the location where Survivor Amazon had been filmed, photographs of Survivor plaques hanging in the hotel complex where the crew stayed, photographs of the Tribal Council and Challenge venues. He was also able to make contact with some of the hotel's personnel who had clued him in on some of their observations. Putting together the puzzle, the author believed that he knew who were the final four and final two contestants.

Armed with all of this information or as he calls it "intel," The Chill One decided to gradually divulge all of this information on one of the Internet spoiler discussion boards. The primary goal of the author was to become the most memorable spoiler, the most accurate, and the most infamous of the spoiling world. For those of you who do not understand the difference between a spoiler and someone who is intent on ruining the show, The Chill One asserts: "To ruin a show is to force people to read and review information of what was going to occur in some forum or environment populated by those who clearly do not want to know. It's tipping them off to something they didn't ask for. Spoiling, on the other hand, is telling people what's going to happen, based on whatever clues you believe you have deciphered, in a place where everyone DOES want to know the result and welcomes it."

What follows is a running commentary of the various messages forming part of the thread posted on the Internet board. Quite interesting, the reader has an insight as to the dynamics of these groups and the constant inter-play among the participants.

Provided you are into reality shows, as well as Internet discussion groups, the book will prove to be a must read.

Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookpleasures
Posted October 25, 2003

Summary

Could someone have actually spoiled an entire season of Survivor? That was the question everyone was asking back in January, 2003, an entire month before the season premier of Survivor: The Amazon. On January 9th, I started an Internet message board thread under the assumed alias of "ChillOne," and debriefed my intelligence, "would-be" confidential information that I uncovered while vacationing in the Brazilian Amazon, including contestant names, game dynamics, location details, and Tribal Council "boot order." In that report, I named Matt Von Ertfelda and Jenna Morasca as the two finalists and pointed to Jenna as the player who was better liked of the two, providing a tantalizing hint of a possible final outcome! Over the next four months, my information would be under the microscope; picked apart and analyzed piece-by-piece by thousands, while at the same time gaining national attention. In the end, ChillOne became one of the most talked about, if not the most talked about, informants in Survivor spoiling history.