In Defense of Spoiling the End of the TV Show

I’m far from alone: Just ask the guy who’s made a career out of spoiling The Bachelor franchise. “I’m not getting people to turn off the show, or not to watch,” says Steve Carbone, a Dallas-based blogger better known by his internet moniker, Reality Steve. “It’s just watching differently.” Carbone started blogging about The Bachelor in 2003, and in 2009, he received his first spoiler from a tipster—correctly revealing a couple weeks in advance that Jason Mesnick would dump his chosen winner, Melissa Rycroft, in favor of his runner-up and now-wife, Molly. It was Carbone’s big break: After he posted the spoiler, his following and credibility skyrocketed. “Then every season, people just kept coming to me with info.” He started dropping tidbits about Vassos’ season of The Golden Bachelorette during filming in July, and revealed her final four on Aug. 27, three weeks before the show was slated to air.