The live “Love Is Blind” reunion failed to launch on Netflix Sunday night.
The live reunion for the mega-hit dating show “Love Is Blind” experienced major delays on Netflix Sunday evening, displaying an error message for users attempting to tune into the live stream of the reunion. The event was set to begin at 5 p.m. PT, but the web browser user interface directs to an error message reading: “Pardon the interruption. We’re having trouble playing Netflix. Please check your internet and try again.”
After more than an hour of problems — at an in-person watch party in Hollywood before an audience of press, influencers, and Netflix reality alumni — Chloe Veitch from “Too Hot to Handle” and “Perfect Match” took the stage to announce that they were going to proceed with taping the reunion, and that some viewers were, in fact, able to see it on live on the streamer. A spokesperson for Netflix told Variety said the special would be available to watch later Sunday night, as many audience members were still unable to watch it live. (Here’s a full recap!)
Almost 90 minutes after the broadcast was to start, Netflix’s Twitter account apologized for the blunder.
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The much-hyped “Love Is Blind” reunion was to mark Netflix’s second-ever live event, as the service broadcast the comedy special “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” on March 4, streaming with no widely reported technical issues, and drawing sizable viewership numbers over the following days.
Things didn’t go as smoothly on April 16, as frustrated reports of a delay continued to pour in on social media. After a short while, Netflix acknowledged the situation through a post: “Love is… late… #LoveIsBlindLIVE will be on in 15 minutes!”
Moments before the post informing viewers that the reunion would face a 15-minute delay, Netflix was still promoting the live reunion with a kickoff time of 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.
Netflix tried its best to entice viewers through the delay, sharing another tweet with a photograph of controversial cast member Irina Solomonova. The caption reads “promise it’s worth the wait.”
The delay resulted in a social media pile-on, with competing networks and streamers poking fun at Netflix’s delay. “We would never keep you waiting for a reunion,” reads a post from Bravo’s official Twitter account.
Both the “Love Is Blind” reunion and the Chris Rock special represent highly promoted leaps for Netflix, as the streamer looks to continue venturing into live programming. Next year, Netflix will stream the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony live, which will mark the first major awards show to broadcast on a streaming service.
Earlier in the evening, the “Love Is Blind” host Vanessa Lachey thanked fans for being patient on social media, sharing a video of herself and her husband, co-host Nick Lachey, ready to go live in front of a studio audience. She indicated that the entire cast was seated in place — indicating that the delay was perhaps due to a technical error, as opposed to participants running late.
“Apparently y’all, everyone broke the internet to see this reunion,” Lachey said. “We are ready to roll.”
Reader, they were not.
