Spoilers for 24: Did They Lead the Producers to Change the Finale?

Further to my post yesterday about spoilers for Lost - and, for any show, in general - being inevitable, and no big deal, there is another aspect of this to consider....

It concerns another show I love, and have reviewed every episode of here since January - 24. In April, some major spoilers were revealed. Judging by their accuracy, they came straight from the working script. By far the most explosive nugget was Josh Bauer is not Jack's nephew, or Jack's son (as I and many others were thinking might be the case), but Jack's half-brother! (Phillip, Jack's father, is Josh's father, too.)

Now, as we know, this extraordinary development did not come to be in the season finale. And there are only two possible explanations:

1. The spoilers were not accurate in the first place.

2. The producers deliberately changed the ending (i) because the spoilers were leaked, and/or (ii) for other reasons.

Everything else in that spoiler - which, remember, was leaked nearly two months before the finale was broadcast - is accurate. (Here's an example from the part of the script that appeared on BuddyTV, April 13, 2007 - Phillip is trying to lower a boat into the water and asks for help. With his back turned, Josh grabs a pipe and hits Phillip with it and takes his gun. - a scene detail from the finale that turned out to be 100% accurate.) This leaves no doubt that that spoiler was accurate.

The only remaining question, then, is why the producers decided to go in different directions with Jack's father.

We the public may never know the answer - because, as I pointed out in my post about reliable evidence the other day, we can never be sure if even an official statement made by a producer is 100% accurate or some species of spin.

Certainly making Phillip Josh's father raises some difficult plot possibilities. Fans with and without real connections to the show suggested, also back in April, that Phillip raped Marylin, who might have been unconscious at the time. Even without such a brutal scenario, the producers might well have decided, not because of the spoilers, that such a direction would do more damage than good to the series. (Michael Ausiello reported last week on tvguide.com that the producers of 24 considered bringing back Tony Almeida in the finale, but eventually rejected that as being inconsistent with the "premises" of the show.)

But if the producers of 24 did change the ending of Season 6 in any part because of the spoilers - on the understandable logic of wanting to invalidate the spoilers and keep the viewers surprised - I would just say that I don't think spoilers should ever lead producers to change the course of a televised narrative. (I in fact did find Phillip's stated motivation for wanting to take Josh with him to China - "that's where the future is!" - not very convincing.)

My advice to the producers would be: stick to your game plan. Most viewers in fact are not privy to the spoilers.

Or, to add on to what I said yesterday: spoilers are no big deal, unless the producers make them so.

Useful links:

Lost Spoilers vs. the Passions of Curiosity: No Big Deal

What Constitutes Reliable Evidence?