Netflix keeps ‘Love Is Blind’ fans waiting for live reunion
Apr 16, 2023, 6:15 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Love isn’t patient, love isn’t kind — at least if you ask the fans of Netflix’s “Love Is Blind.” More than 45 minutes after a Season 4 reunion special was set to stream live Sunday — Netflix’s second-ever live event on its own platform — viewers were still waiting for the special to start.
“Love Is Blind: The Live Reunion,” hosted by Vanessa and Nick Lachey, was to stream from Los Angeles starting at 5 p.m. Pacific. Netflix subscribers were able to join a waiting room for the show 10 minutes before the start time — and those who did were still there an hour later.
It’s unclear whether the delay is a result of technical difficulties or another issue. A request for comment from Netflix was not immediately returned. Netflix’s first live streaming event, “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” did not feature any apparent technical difficulties.
On Twitter, Netflix acknowledged the delay without offering explanation. At two minutes past the hour, it promised the special would be in on in 15 minutes. Seven minutes later, the company tweeted: “Promise #LoveIsBlindLIVE will be worth the wait….” along with a picture of one of the season’s “villains.”
The last activity from the account was a retweet of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making a joke about the delay. With the original end time of the special approaching, nothing has been posted since.
Co-host Vanessa Lachey took to Instagram — briefly live, perhaps ironically — from the set to try to entice viewers to stay on, indicating the delay was a technical issue in a post thanking fans for being patient and captioned: “Apparently we broke the internet!”
“This is so 2023,” she said.
Cast members from the Seattle-based season also took to the social media platform to joke about the delay. Marshall Glaze posted a picture of himself studying an array of wires: “I’m trying yall,” he tweeted.
Competing streamers and networks also made hay of the drama.
“We would never keep you waiting for a Reunion,” BravoTV — home of many a chaotic reunion special — tweeted with a winky face.
“Hmm,” read a screencap featuring Kerry Washington tweeted by Hulu.
While the chaos dominated Twitter’s trending topics, the end of the hour brought a significant threat to the Netflix’s dominance of the discourse: the latest episode of HBO’s “Succession” is now streaming.
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Associated Press journalists Beatrice Dupuy, Alicia Rancilio and Mallika Sen contributed to this report.
