It seems as though the gorgeous sensation of suspense is fading fast from the experience of watching television.

For many viewers, TV shows are pleasurable because they arrive in tantalizing episodes, slowly doling out twists and turns. But with more behind-the-scenes information floating around in gossip columns, online discussion boards and mainstream publications, it is possible to find out what happens to characters months in advance.

Among those who traffic in spoilers, these ruptures of the classic TV dynamic are the greatest compliment fans can pay their favorite shows. The most popular series - action dramas such as “24” and “Alias,” glossy soaps such as “The O.C.,” reality competitions such as “The Apprentice” - all have been the victims of steady leaks.

By contrast, notes Amy Amatangelo, who writes the TVGal column at Zap2It.com, “There’s no one out there begging for ‘Judging Amy’ spoilers.”

For television writers laboring over intricately constructed plots, spoilers can be a special torment.

“They beat me up; they took my lunch money,” sighs Joss Whedon, whose productions (including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the canceled “Angel”) have been longtime sieves for inside information.

For Whedon, the death of television surprise is the end of a “holy emotion.” Surprise, he argues, “makes you humble. It makes you small in the world, and takes you out of your own perspective.”

J.J. Abrams, creator and executive producer of “Alias” and “Lost” (the latter had some of this season’s secrets outed on Web sites Dark Horizons and Ain’t It Cool News) also expresses chagrin and resignation.

“On the one hand, it’s infuriating when the secret gets out,” he says. “It’s like you work very hard to put on a magic show, and the audience has already read how your tricks are done. On the other hand, we are beholden to the fans. I appreciate it as much as I despise it. I’m pretty convinced if I weren’t doing this, I’d be one of the people wanting to know.”

In the last two years, spoilers have increasingly migrated into newspapers and magazines, sometimes blocked off under special warnings, sometimes simply dished up in gossip columns. But their emergence is tied directly to the lively, occasionally worshipful and often rancorous community of television watchers online, where devoted fans gather to talk about the shows they love - and often directly to the people who make them.

On sites like Ain’t It Cool News, E! Online and Zap2It, columnists publish spoilers each week, culled from an army of anonymous e-mail tipsters. These items ricochet into the entertainment press, blurring the line between zingy preview and total giveaway.

Many online columnists justify their work with the classic drug-dealer argument: They’re just giving people what they want. But they also say they shouldn’t be scapegoated for the larger tendency toward revelation, fueled in part by the networks themselves.

“Is there a spoiler site on the Internet as ruinous to fan enjoyment as the Fox network’s promo department?” Hercules, the pseudonymous TV maven at Ain’t It Cool News, argues.