Hulu ruins theOscarsfor many viewers after the livestream went down right before the end of the ceremony. The97th annual Academy Awardswere held last night on Sunday, March 2. The award show maintained last year’s procedure of starting at 7pm EST / 4pm CST (after typically beginning at 8pm EST), but changed some things up. One of the most notable changes was, for the first time in the history of the ceremony,making the Oscar telecast available to livestream on Hulu.
Not going as smoothly as one would have hoped,the Hulu livestream ended up shutting down during the ceremony, and viewers are giving an enraged response. Audiences quickly took to the internet to express their distaste for Hulu’s frustrating mishap. Check out some of their reactions below:
Thematically appropriate, given the simultaneous airing ofThe White Lotusseason 3, episode 3,@applesbianzposted a gif of a key scene from season 2 of the series, noting that they had to find out Best Actress and Best Picture through social media.
@tweetsofWIZARDincluded a picture of the dreaded screen that mentioned “the live content has now ended,” and wrote “HULU JUST SHUT OFF THE OSCARS.”
Adding to the gif reaction mania was@st4rry4pples, who included a confusedJimmy Neutrongif and wrote “uhm…why did hulu cut off the Oscars at best director.”
Referencing one of the night’s speeches,@joyIuvjoked “hulu cutting the oscars because we were told to go back to theaters instead of streaming services.”
@Nikstrickalso made a perturbed comment about the speeches, noting thatThe Brutalistactor Adrien Brody’s speech was “so long that it made the Oscar broadcast go past its viewing time on Hulu.”
@hedonisticcalswas similarly stunned, wondering why Hulu would turn it off before two important awards.
Some demanded reparations from Hulu, like@TranceRevolved, who wanted a refund after all the Oscar advertising the streamer did.
In a clever reference to one of host Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue jokes,@jordan_hcgincluded a picture of a disappointed-looking John Lithgow, saying it was “Hulu telling me the Oscars are over when they haven’t announced best picture.”
What This Means For The Oscars Telecast
Viewers Missed Out On One Of The Night’s Surprises
As the social media posts referenced,this flub occurred right after the Academy awarded the prize for Best Director, which went to Sean Baker (winning a third Oscar of the night, after Editing and Original Screenplay). As the stream headed into what should have been a commercial break, viewers were faced with a screen that thanked them for watching and said the event had ended. Despite the outrage, given two of the biggest awards of the night had not yet been announced, Hulu was not able to get the Oscars back up and running before Best Picture was announced.
Sean Baker ended up winning 4 Oscars total last night, as he was also a producer onAnora, which won Best Picture.
WhileAnora’s PGA win made its Best Picture chances a lot better going into last night,the Hulu flub was particularly frustrating to those anxiously awaiting Best Actress. Though she was far from a lock, clearly, Demi Moore was widely considered the favorite for her role playing Elisabeth Sparkle inThe Substance. She had won a Golden Globe for the part along with other major awards. Instead, this went toAnora’s Mikey Madison, making for asurprise Oscars momentthat Hulu viewers particularly did not want to miss.
Our Take On The Hulu Mishap
As one of the many Hulu viewers last night myself, I was similarly outraged by the streamer’s poor programming. This year’s Oscars could have been a huge win for content access, as the awards were made available for the thousands without cable who did not want to splurge on live services for one night only. Instead, the future of the streamedOscarsmay be in jeopardy, or at least at this streamer, asHulu has had other problems with live contentin the past.
