Stop spoiling my viewing, I do not have the attention span of a 1 year old!

Why do TV channels show you what is coming up on the show you're watching during the commercials?

I can understand it if it's a chat show but some channels will reveal spoilers for no apparent reason as though they think we'll just stop watching half way through if we don't know how it will end!

Do American audiences really have such short attention spans that they have to know what they're about to watch instead of waiting and seeing the show develop in it's natural order?

BBC America are one of the worst culprits. We were watching Primeval the other night and during each commercial break they show you what is going to happen later in the show. They even show you what is going to happen later in the series, including the return of long gone or presumed dead characters.

What is the point in that? Thanks very much. Now I won't need to watch the whole thing so your plan backfired.

The BBC in Britain is a commercial free station funded by the licence fee so I can understand how they have to stretch a forty minute show into an hour for BBC America (which is a commercial station) but do they really have to reveal plot spoilers?

It's probably because I watch a lot of BBC America but other channels do it and it is very annoying!