Survivor’s Russell Hantz Leaking Spoilers Online

Russell Hantz, Survivor’s bad boy, has apparently been leaking show information online, according to a report by The Daily Beast.

According to the report, Jim Early, of ‘Survivor Sucks’ leaked information from the show successfully spoiling both season 19 and 20, and was sued by CBS. Early has now revealed his source as none other than the bad boy himself, Russell Hantz. According to the report, Early said that the investigators were less interested in him than they were trying to find who was giving him this information. The contestants of Survivor sign a contract that states they cannot discuss with anyone ”the elimination of contestants and the selection of any winner.” Russell, clearly, thought it didn’t apply to him.

Why is Mr. Early pointing out his source? According to Jim, it is Russell’s attitude about the whole thing and ”because Russell tried to implicate another player, an innocent player, who wasn’t giving information.”

No word from CBS whether they plan on suing one of their own stars for the breech of contract, but they did issue a statement:

“CBS’ Statement on Behalf of Survivor
From the beginning, Survivor has been blessed with a rabid fan base, including a fanatical group online which, from the show’s early days, initiated one of television’s first organized campaigns to predict and speculate results in advance of a reality show broadcast. As the show has progressed in years and the Internet has grown in scope, the number of these sites has increased with periodic claims of unauthorized leaks from people connected to the show.

We’ve investigated some of these claims. Each time, we’ve peeled back the curtain to find a subculture of the show with fans/bloggers simultaneously networking and competing with each other for spoiler information while hurling accusations of unfair practices against each other.

The fervent activity of these sites often generates a confusing web of backstabbing, claims of misinformation and Internet alliances. It’s almost like an underground game-within-a-game of Survivor that plays out with the melodrama of a daytime soap and the complexity of Dungeons and Dragons.

Outwit, outplay, outlast. It happens more than just on the air.”

A related story about Russell Hantz at TV Line posted by Michael Slezak talks about this ‘subculture’ and discusses how a commenter “d-bag” on a blog posted spoilers that ruined his Survivor Season. We understand that some may not want spoilers, while others are trolling the internet looking for them.

We here at the Yak do post spoilers as we find them, in which we CLEARLY mark “spoiler” on the front, or in the forum. Most are either collected on the Internet as we scrounge around, or by a member. How this information comes to light to them, we have no idea. However, as far as a “subculture” of the show, internet alliances, competing with other bloggers, hurling unfair accusations and the like, we try real hard not to participate. This subculture is exactly what was the spark to the Yak’s existence, to get away from the hurling and backstabbing, the scandal sheets and the trash. Have we grown as quickly as we would have liked? Probably not. Could we have been huge by posting the above items? Probably, but we pride ourselves on quality, and hope that others will see that eventually as well. So, join us in the forum to discuss, get spoiled, whatever your flavor, and let’s enjoy the shows together.