The biggest night in Hollywood was interrupted by Hulu‘s bungled livestream Sunday evening (March 2) as technical errors blocked thousands of subscribers from logging in and also led to the livestream being cut short just as the evening’s biggest categories were announced.
The technical difficulties began at the start of the ceremony when several users reportedly had issues logging into the streaming service. Down Detector, which tracks network outages, estimates over 34,000 Hulu subscribers were impacted with login difficulties when the show began.
Hulu first addressed the login issue on X at 7:39 p.m. ET, approximately 40 minutes into the Oscars ceremony. Though the streamer apologized for the inconvenience, the issue was not resolved until over two hours into the ceremony, according to the X post shared by the Hulu Support team.
This means many cord cutters hoping to tune in via Hulu were not able to see Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande‘s highly anticipated duet that opened the ceremony or Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue.
Things only got worse for Hulu when the livestream ended prematurely, just as the Best Picture and Best Actress categories were to be announced. The Hollywood Reporter notes viewers were met with a message thanking them for tuning into the program, just as Anora won Best Picture and its lead star, Mikey Madison, nabbed her first Oscar for Best Actress. The interruption was reportedly caused by a scheduling system issue.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Viewers at home were vocal about Hulu’s bungled livestream. “So @hulu just cut the #Oscars feed and won’t allow any playback. C’mon, Disney. What’re you doing?!” one viewer wrote alongside a photo of Hulu’s notice that “the live event has now ended. You may exit playback.”
Another called the experience “poetic” considering Anora director Sean Baker gave an impassioned speech encouraging viewers and distributors to attend movie theaters instead of streaming new releases. “Hulu ruining the Oscars is really poetic coming after Sean Baker’s speech about streaming services killing the movies,” another viewer wrote.
“Just when you thought Netflix was the worst at streaming live events, Hulu came swinging in at the last moment to completely ruin the end of their Oscars stream,” another critic commented, while others called the Hulu presentation an “absolute train wreck.”
Bloomberg reports the Academy is considering ending its partnership with Disney, which owns ABC and Hulu, when its contract is up in 2028.
At the time of publication, the Oscars Red Carpet Show and the complete ceremony are available to stream on Hulu.
