Interview with SpoilerTV Creator/Owner DarkUFO

Hey SpoilerTV fans,

You all visit the website on a regular basis, and you all head to the site to find out the things you want to know about TV. I believe SpoilerTV is the best website in the world and it is my biggest internet addiction.
But who is it that runs the show, the man behind the curtain... You know him as DarkUFO and he works tirelessly to bring everyone who loves television the chance to get involved, communicate and further enhance the TV experience.
I asked him if he would be okay taking part in an interview with me to find out about the man behind the name and give you all the chance to see exactly who it is that made SpoilerTV possible. From UFOs and poker to LOSTfan108, This is the SpoilerTV exclusive interview with Andy 'DarkUFO' Page.

We'll start easy... What's your real name?
Andy Page

Where are you from?
Bedfordshire, England

And are you Married?
Yes, to the lovely Annie. No Kids but 1 black cat.

SpoilerTV was born from your love of LOST and the creation of the DarkUFO Blog. What were your first experiences of LOST and how did that lead to creating DarkUFO?
I started watching from the Pilot here in the UK, although it had been out for a while in the US, it was around August 2005. This was before I discovered the joys of Downloading :)

Channel 4 in the UK aired about 4-5 episodes back to back and the Wife and I both fell in love with it and could not get enough. After this I managed to download all the episodes from the US as we could not wait a week for the next episode. We managed to watch them all in a matter of days I believe.

Pretty much everything [about LOST] got me hooked... the mystery, the acting, the locations, the soundtrack. They all just combined perfectly into some magical.

I never went out with the intention of starting a blog. In fact to be honest I probably did not really know what a blog was. My only exposure was via the IMDB messages boards that I tried to catch up with the latest info/news/spoilers.

It was during this time before the Season 2 premiere aired in the USA that I decided to try and find all the info I could on what was in the hatch and what awaited us in Season 2. During lots of searches I came across a report from someone (who I now know watched the beach party premiere in Hawaii) who saw the premiere a week before the ABC premiere of S2. His report sounded strange. Scottish Guy in the hatch, pressing buttons etc etc.

What did people make of those initial spoilers?
I remember posting this on the IMDB message boards (this was my first official spoiler lol) and about 95% of the people thought I was making it up, a troll, etc etc.

It was funny to see the reaction after the episode lol.

So from that point on I seemed to find myself unwittingly regarded as a spoiler hound! I then started watching Season 2 the following mornings after it aired in the US so I could take screencaps as well as keeping up with others in the discussions that followed.

And so the DarkUFO blog was born out of this?
Yes. It was around this time that I started a little blog for myself as IMDB was not able to post photos etc to list all the outstanding mysteries. This site got picked up by the Social Network site DIGG.COM and we had around 200,000 hits in about 24hrs. This obviously was my "lucky break" and I picked up a ton of new followers and RSS subscribers.

Also around this time I was collecting spoilers over at IMDB and ‘DocArzt’ [LOST fan and creator of thetailsection.com] asked me to join his site as his spoiler editor. Whilst doing this I also decided to grow my own site to include things like polls, theories, screen-caps etc; and then finally added the spoiler section of my own.

From then on it just snowballed. The site has had over 172 Million Hits.

What were you doing prior to LOST?
I started out as a developer after leaving University and then slowly progressed to Team Leader and then Project Manager. I've worked for Western Geophysical, Unilever, Unipower, PriceWaterhouse and IBM.

I decided to leave the rat race several years ago to become a professional poker player, which I still do today.

I read that you also spent some time as a UFO researcher. What can you say about your time doing that? Is there anything out there?
I started to become fascinated in the whole scene when the X-Files started, I've read over 200+ UFO books and at the time ran one of the Internets largest UFO sites [sadly deleted now due to the company running the site going out of business]. I'm sure there is something out there, I just don't know what. [There are] To many reports by too many credible witnesses for there not to be something to it.

You mentioned your time as a professional Poker player, what drew you to such a profession and what were your experiences of that time?
I started one night watching it on TV and become hooked. I started playing on line in the evenings to relax and I started to make some money. I read about 50 Poker books and become seriously obsessed. I was making more and more money and at the time was getting sick of the 9-5 routine so I thought fuck it; I gave up work and played full-time for 3 years. I still play now but not as much as the site takes up so much of my time.

Has anyone ever recognised you from SpoilerTV or DarkUFO?
Not directly that I know if, although when I was in Australia for the Ashes in 2007/08 two Australian friends started telling me about this great show that was on and told me about this website I should check out.

They we flabbergasted when I told them it was my site. They did not believe me until I made a post on the site when I got back giving them a shout out.

Of course the DarkUFO blog became well known for its odd moment of controversy, the most memorable being LostFan108. [LostFan108 exposed spoilers about the season 3 finale of LOST] Now that LOST is close to being a year in the past, what are your thoughts on the time you gave the world his spoilers?
Confusion, to be honest; I had no idea if what I did was the right thing, but I think it was. The information was going to get released with or without me so I thought I'd take it on and release in the most responsible way possible.

Personally I'd have preferred Lostfan108 not to have revealed them at all, but once they were out there I tried my best to release them as best I could. I still don't know if I did the right thing or not.

What are you final thoughts on LOST now as a collective whole? Was it worth all the hard work in the end?
Oh absolutely. If I had my time again I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Lost is still the only show that has totally captivated me. I loved every minute of the show as well as running the site. Even Stranger in a Strange land and Nikki and Paulo. It's the best show I've ever seen.

Do you wish you had gone over to Hawaii or had the chance to be more closely involved in the six years on the island?
Not really, as a) I hate flying and b) There would have been no one to update the site lol. Seriously though, yes, it would have been cool, but Damon and Carlton would probably have had me extradited :)

What shows are you enjoying the most currently?
The ones currently are ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Damages’, ‘Mad Dogs’, the recently cancelled ‘Rubicon’ and ‘Flashforward’. Also ‘The Event’, ‘V’, and even the much maligned ‘The Cape’. I pretty much watch a lot of shows, but those tend to be the must not miss ones.

Barring LOST, what are your favourite books, films, music and older TV shows?
Books would be ‘The Holographic Universe’, Film would be ‘The Thing’, Music would be ‘The Chameleons’ & older TV show would be ‘Fawlty Towers.’
Although, ask me that again tomorrow and you will probably get 4 different answers.

What prompted the decision to move forwards from DarkUFO to create SpoilerTV?
During my time getting spoilers for LOST, I also managed to meet a few people who got spoilers in general for other shows. Also at this time, ABC announced an end date for Lost so I thought about what I would do when Lost is over.

I loved the community and all the great people I've met during my time doing DarkUFO and I didn't want that to end. So I started to make plans for a general Spoiler Site.

How big can SpoilerTV become now you have the time to put your full focus onto it? Can it match the DarkUFO blog?
I'm not sure it will ever match the sheer size of DarkUFO. The Lost finale had 1.7 Million hits in the 24hrs following the episode. SpoilerTV currently gets around 200,000 hits per day.

We're growing all the time and we've got a great team of contributors, writers and readers/commentators. I want to continue to grow the community and make it a home for TV lovers.

What is your favourite part of running SpoilerTV?
The best part is the people and community. I know I've mentioned this before but I've met so many great people over the years and have been amazed at how many people dedicate their own time and effort into helping the site.

What’s an average day like running one of the biggest TV websites in the world?
An average day basically starts with 2 large coffees whilst I plough through 700+ emails/submissions/comments that have come in overnight. Once those have been done and processed I then start posting any new info that has come in that has not been posted. We then also update various regular items like the Stats counts, Ratings, Cancellation tables, the ‘What will you Watch’ polls and then schedule in all the "What did you think" polls. etc. Respond to any comments/questions, fix any issues etc I also have a large site to do list for the features/functions that I want to add to the site and spend 1-2 hrs a day building and testing these.

Have you ever thought about leaving behind the world of TV and moving on to something new?
Not at the moment, I'm enjoying running the site too much to think about anything else. The site gives me time to play poker and make an income. I’m probably going to setup a “tech” blog to help others who run blogs and similar sites which has useful info and insights although this won’t detract at all from my main focus of SpoilerTV.

What is your proudest moment of running both DarkUFO and SpoilerTV?
The building of the community and the friends I've made.

Do you feel the connection to SpoilerTV that you felt running the LOST website? My own feelings are that DarkUFO made my experience of LOST much more enjoyable and I felt much closer to the show I love because of the site.
Tough question. It’s like asking a parent which child they love the most lol.

I think DarkUFO will always be my "first love" as it was the first site I built like this. It was also a labour of love. SpoilerTV however is slowly catching up but it will be hard pressed to beat the feelings that I had whilst running DarkUFO.

Could another show ever match your love for LOST and become a new website run by you?
I would love to think so, but I suspect the TV landscape has changed too much. Shows are not given enough time and it's all about the ratings. I hope I am wrong and that another "LOST" comes along one day, but I just can't see it at the moment.

What is it that you love about TV?
Put simply, Escapism. I can go to places/worlds and "meet" other characters that I would not normally get to see.

TV is seeing a loss in viewers nowadays as more and more people move online. Can TV survive and where do you see the future in the type of programming covered on SpoilerTV?
Yes, it's a big problem. TV is Global and the sooner the big US Networks realise this and work out a way to monetise their shows better globally they are going to continue to dwindle. The antiquated Nielsen system needs a complete overhaul.

If they don't they are going to go the way of the major music labels who dragged their feet during the MP3 revolution.

What new shows are you most excited about that are starting this year?
Not many to be honest but there are a couple. I think Alcatraz seems the most promising. Another JJ Abrams effort with Jorge Garcia (Hurley) from LOST. It's got some good momentum. I'm also intrigued about Terra Nova, the Spielberg produced show.

Another JJ show is Person of Interest which has some time travel elements. And finally Once Upon a Time which is by Kitsis and Horowitz and Lindelof of Lost fame.

And what in particular are you most looking forward to on SpoilerTV this year?
Keeping the site growing and introducing new features such as Homepage Customisation, Firefox and Safari Extensions, and some improvements to the mobile versions.

Finally, I read that one of the most common questions you get asked is what does DarkUFO mean. Let’s nip that in the bud and confirm exactly where it came from.
It was the handle I used when I setup my UFO website. It's also the name of the Trance Band I was in years ago. We were looking for a name and thought DarkUFO sounded mysterious :)

Source: SpoilerTV

Hope you all enjoyed the fascinating insight into the origins of SpoilerTV and feel free to comment below with any queries or questions.

Twitter: AdDHarris
Adam