Social media and old media in lockstep to keep mum on The Block All Stars auction winner: Title Tattle

Late Tuesday morning Property Observer tweeted that intending buyers were in the dark on the price initially paid for the four Bondi cottages before their renovation on the reality television series.

In the early afternoon, the auctioneer Damien Cooley says he is wearing a new suit and adds:

Property reporter Kirsten Craze was actually there on Tasman Street. She promotes herself as News Ltd property writer "covering every nook and cranny" of Sydney real estate, but the best she could do was post two Instagram photos of the auction crowd.

The Block design judge Shaynna Blaze suggested around 8pm that staying off Twitter was the best way to avoid getting any auction leak. Not that she knew any of the results.

Just after 10pm the television commentator Steve Molks suggested he knew the result but wasn't telling.

At 11.55pm The SMH and The Age post an AAP story under the wily headline: White is a winner: The Block's Josh and Jenna. It was a piece written before the day's auctions. "Newlyweds Josh and Jenna will have succeeded on The Block: All Stars even if their house is again passed-in at auction," it suggested. The winning white was their preferred paint colour.

Dead on midnight Kirsten Craze uploaded her article that took readers not much further than her nondescript earlier tweet.

"Held at each of the renovated-for-TV heritage houses in Tasman St, the individual auctions drew a crowd of curious invited guests and a number of serious bidders - all sworn to secrecy by Channel 9.

"Several hours of carefully orchestrated auctioneering, interviews and on-camera reactions from the contestants will be edited down to a two-hour TV package to air tonight at 7pm." The Tele should have sent a television critic.

At 12.30 an unofficial Block devotee tweeted on the auction's apparent closeness.

Long after the auction, indeed at 1.30am, the estate agent responsible for Phil and Amity's renovation and marketing advice, Brad Caldwell-Eyles at 1st City Real Estate tweeted in acknowledgement that the couple had scored the best cumulatively throughout the room reveals.

So super close or super tight, the secret held over night, despite the supposed purpose of social media being  information in real time with reaction.

Granted no one likes a spoiler - and Title Tattle has in past series advised only on the overall clearance rate rather than identify the winner contestants.

Not being there this time, however, Title Tattle notes, as if to show how transitory the reality show really is, that last year's winner Brad and Lara, who've appeared in extensive motor vehicle advertising during the latest series, were miles away themselves.

And indeed with not so much as a good luck tweet to the latest contestants as they got into their Longhorns Nachos after a bit of skiing at Whistler. Nice for some! Of course, there was, no doubt, a little left for their new lifestyle after their 6,000 winners' take from last year after which they bought a 27-hectare Hunter Valley farm.

The betting agency Sportsbet had Adelaide mum and dad team Phil and Amity as odds-on favourites at $1.50 to win the series - a vast improvement from when they were the least favourite couple at about $5.50 on the February launch.

Of course, the bookies got it wrong last year, but they don't often.