Netflix's disastrous Love Is Blind live reunion

Netflix's foray into live streaming is off to a rocky start. On Sunday, the streamer made one of its first attempts at hosting a live event on its service, and it was an abject disaster, raising questions about whether the company will continue down this path and if it can avoid similar issues in the future. What happened, what went wrong, and what does it mean for the future of Netflix?

What happened during Netflix's 'Love Is Blind' reunion?

Netflix on Sunday hosted a live reunion special for its dating show Love Is Blind, which was highly anticipated among fans considering it essentially served as the big finale of its most recent season and would answer questions about the status of its various couples. This was one of the first times Netflix attempted to broadcast anything live.

Spoiler alert: It did not go well. Viewers were quickly frustrated when the event failed to start on time and they were presented with error messages, and in a since-deleted tweet early in the night, Netflix assured fans it would "be on in 15 minutes." But 15 minutes passed, and the issues persisted. "Everybody broke the internet to see this reunion," host Vanessa Lachey said on Instagram.

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More than an hour later, the show still wasn't on. About 90 minutes after the scheduled start time, Netflix finally addressed "everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon," saying it was "incredibly sorry" the event "did not turn out as we had planned." Netflix added, "We're filming it now and we'll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible." The special finally came on for some viewers, but not others. Hours later, Netflix said it would be available on the service, no longer live, later in the day on Monday.

Netflix was widely mocked for the broadcast's failure throughout the evening, with other brands, including even a Twitter account for Blockbuster, weighing in. "Remember renting vhs' from us," Blockbuster tweeted. "You could start it on time no problem … This is what we get." Some fans wondered why Netflix hosted the event live in the first place. "The most frustrating part....NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS!!!" one fan commented on Reddit. "We would have been fine with prerecorded!"

When it was finally available, the special also received some criticism for not being especially compelling as a broadcast. "Nothing was worth seeing live," Kathryn VanArendonk wrote at Vulture, suggesting live broadcasting is a technology that Netflix "does not need and should not be using."

Why is Netflix trying to do live events at all?

So given Netflix has become so famous for its binge-watching model, why is the streamer attempting to get into live broadcasting anyway? Well, one factor is the company's desire for more buzzy, must-watch programming that will make people feel they have to stay subscribed to Netflix all year long so they're not missing out on major water cooler conversations, as opposed to binge-watching the new season of Stranger Things in a weekend and then canceling for months at a time.

"Netflix is looking for ways to be competitive and to show consumers why they need to stay subscribed to Netflix, because now there's so many choices," Interpret vice president Brett Sappington explained to the Los Angeles Times, adding, "If you can only see it on Netflix, then everyone who saw it has to go to Netflix to make sure that they are part of it. They don't want to miss out."

In a Tuesday earnings interview, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos argued that sometimes "results-oriented shows do play out a little bit better on live," generating "a lot of conversation." He previously said that Netflix wants "to create the excitement around live for those things that are uniquely more exciting to be live."

Since last year, Netflix has been exploring new ways to boost revenue and retain subscribers after recording its first subscriber loss in over a decade, which is also why it plans to crack down on password sharing. The Love Is Blind reunion was Netflix's second live event ever, with the first being a Chris Rock comedy special broadcast on the service in March. Disney+ also began streaming content live for the first time last year with Dancing with the Stars, and TechCrunch noted the first live episode "had minimal hiccups" outside of "a few minor delays and lags."

What was the cause of the 'Love Is Blind' issues?

Netflix addressed its live stream disaster in a Tuesday earnings interview and provided an explanation of what went wrong. According to co-CEO Greg Peters, the issues were due to a "bug that we introduced when we implemented some changes to try and improve live streaming performance after the last live broadcast," the Chris Rock special.

"We just didn't see this bug in internal testing because it only became apparent once we put multiple systems interacting with each other under the load of millions of people trying to watch Love Is Blind," he added. According to Netflix, 6.5 million people watched the special. "We hate it when these things happen but we'll learn from it and get better," Peters said.

Will Netflix continue attempting live events?

After Sunday's disastrous broadcast, Puck's Matthew Belloni predicted on The Town podcast that Netflix will "quietly pause" its plans for live events "for now."

On Tuesday, though, Sarandos said the streamer is open to more live events without specifically naming any in the immediate future. "We've said we want to use live when it makes sense creatively, when it helps the content itself," he 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."

Sarandos added that "some" other unscripted shows will be live going forward. Peters also insisted Netflix has "the infrastructure" needed for live events. Netflix didn't have these sorts of widespread issues with its Chris Rock special, with the only major hiccup being that Rock at one point flubbed a joke. But the special began at its scheduled time and was mostly broadcast smoothly, suggesting this isn't something that's completely out of the company's reach to pull off.

They better hope it's not considering the streamer already has one major live event in sight, as Netflix is expected to stream the prestigious Screen Actors Guild Awards live on the service in early 2024.