Despite ‘Love Is Blind’ Glitch, Netflix Is Open to More Live Events
A technical bug was responsible for the delay in the live reunion of Love is Blind, however, executives stressed that the streamer has the infrastructure needed to do live broadcasts in the future.
The live reunion for season four of Love is Blind was meant to air at 5 p.m. PT Sunday, but was delayed by more than an hour. It eventually aired later that evening for some customers, but was no longer live.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
At the time, Netflix did not give any reason for the delay. The recorded special then appeared on Netflix Monday afternoon. During the company’s first-quarter earnings interview Tuesday, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company was “really sorry to have disappointed so many people.” He added that the bug was introduced after the streamer had tried to make improvements to its live broadcasting system following the Chris Rock special in March.
“We just didn’t see this bug in internal testing because it only became apparent once we put sort of multiple systems interacting with each other under the load of millions of people trying to watch Love is Blind. So we hate it when these things happen, but we’ll learn from it, and will get better and we do have the fundamental infrastructure that we need,” Peters said.
In the end, 6.5 million viewers watched the show, he said.
The reunion, hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, was meant to be Netflix’s second-ever live broadcast following Rock’s stand-up special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage, which debuted March 4.
The streamer has already announced plans to livestream next year’s SAG Awards ceremony. Other streaming companies have been moving into live events due to their continuing draw for audiences. Amazon, for example, signed an 11-year deal to stream Thursday Night Football and Apple TV+ airing select MLB games.
Netflix, on the other hand, has been resistant to live sports in particular due to the high cost of acquiring the rights. However, during the earnings interview co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the company was open to doing more live events.
“We’ve said we want to use live when it makes sense creatively, when it helps the content itself,” Sarandos said. “So a reunion show that’s going to generate news and buzz, it really does play better live when people can enjoy it together.”
He added that the Chris Rock standup show made sense for a live event because of the anticipation of what he would say in the set. However, 90 percent of viewing happened after the show aired live, he said.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Solve the daily Crossword
