Viewers furious over ‘spoiled’ Survivor finale

THE winner of Survivor was meant to be a closely guarded secret — but viewers were left gobsmacked midway through the finale when Ten seemed to let the cat out of the bag.

UNDERDOG castaway Kristie Bennett swept the pool during last night’s Survivor finale, scoring a landslide victory against athletic favourite Lee Carseldine.

Her win was a closely guarded secret that few viewers could’ve seen coming, given her outsider status throughout the season — yet it appears Ten blew the surprise before it had aired with a trigger-happy network promotion.

Midway through the mammoth two-hour finale, Ten plugged the following night’s episode of The Project during an ad break. Listing the guests that would appear on the next edition of the panel show, they showed footage of each of the three remaining Survivor finalists. As the promo announced they’d be speaking to ‘the winner of Survivor’, they cut to vision of Kristie solo.

Notoriously spoiler-adverse Survivor fans instantly took to social media to ask whether one of the most closely guarded secrets in reality TV had just been given away by a simple network promo during the very show they were glued to.

Um, did the ad for The Project just spoil #survivorau ?!

— Gemma Najem (@gem_k) October 25, 2016

good work The Project for ruining the ending #SurvivorAU #TheProjectTV

— Autocorrect (@JazzPineapple) October 25, 2016

#survivorau
the project just had an add saying they are intervieing the winner of survivor ans showed krsty only#fail?

— Grant Gregory (@mrgrantgregory) October 25, 2016

DID THE PROJECT JUST SPOIL THE RESULTS? #SurvivorAU

— sparkle crotch (@jessicalees_) October 25, 2016

The project ad literally just said Kristie won #SurvivorAU

— Amelia Byrne (@byrne_amelia) October 25, 2016

... and so on.

Speaking to the Herald Sun’s Luke Dennehy after her win, Bennett said she knew many people doubted she had what it took to make it to the end of the mammoth 55-day competition.

“I’m taking one for all the people that feel a little bit different, a little bit weird, who don’t quite fit the mode of what society thinks of them,” she said.

“I believe that I’ve proven, it’s OK to be yourself, no matter what.

“If you hold your own, it doesn’t matter.”

Speaking to news.com.au this morning, a Network Ten spokesperson was adamant that The Project’s promo had not spoiled the finale:

“The Project promo that aired during the Australian Survivor finale did not spoil the ending. The promo included vision of all three finalists and was positioned to viewers that The Project would be chatting to the winner of the hit series.”

Last night’s finale was a ratings winner for Ten, with the winner announcement ranking as the second-highest rating program of the night, behind only Seven News.

Network Ten Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: “We are very pleased with the performance of the first season of Australian Survivor and delighted that 1.45 million people tuned in to watch Kristie Bennett’s well-deserved win in last night’s extraordinary Grand Finale,” Network Ten Chief Content Officer Beverley McGarvey said in a statement provided to news.com.au.

“Our 24 tribe mates played the game with passion and enthusiasm, and brought a unique Australian twist to one of the best and most enduring reality television formats in the world. Jonathan LaPaglia did a fantastic job as host and we are thrilled that he will return to Australian Survivor next year.”

Kristie Bennett, now half a million dollars richer. Picture: Jonathan Ng