Does knowing the ending ruin a story?

I am reading a story and these two guys are out on a date and they are arguing about   whether or not knowing the ending ruins a story.

I am reading this and thinking: not! But, maybe yes.

Then I ask myself: when was the last time knowing the ending put me off a story?

Answer: pretty much never.

I mean, when I don’t like the ending, that’s different. Sometimes I don’t want to finish (reading the book, watching the TV show/movie). But that doesn’t happen a lot.

I rarely go looking for the ending, but I usually don’t put any effort into avoiding finding out what the ending is either. Other people do. They’ll ask me not to tell them the ending of the next movie they haven’t seen. Or, when I ask, they’ll stop at a certain point because they don’t want to ruin the ending for me. Which is nice, except knowing rarely ruins anything for me.

Maybe I am odd that way. Maybe I am not. If I am odd this way, why do television studios play reruns of the same show over and over and over again. And then when the show is canceled, it goes to a different station.  If people didn’t watch the reruns, why air them at all? So I am thinking enough people must watch again to make it worth their while.

And I reread books a lot too so . . . okay so a lot of people don’t reread books, so maybe I am odd.

The ending is only one part of a story. The other parts are just as nice and worth revisiting. More people ought to get that.