After Netflix disappointed Love Is Blind fans with the botched “live” reunion on Sunday, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are explaining what went into the mess. During a Q&A for investors Tuesday, less than two days after the streamer was forced to scrap its heavily-promoted live reunion format for a pre-recorded special following a 75-minute wait, Sarandos and Peters said that 6.5 million people tuned in for the reunion, which was delayed due to a technical bug.
“We had just a bug that we introduced, actually, when we implemented some changes to try and improve live streaming performance after the last live broadcast,” Peters, who shared that they were “really sorry to disappoint so many people,” said, per Variety. “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.”
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That bug led to plenty of frustrations and what turned out to be a 75-minute wait before the reunion special aired, though it was no longer presented as a live format. The special, which has faced plenty of criticism for more reasons than just the massive delay, finally aired at around 9:30 p.m. ET, though it was only available for a short amount of time before it disappeared from the platform only to be made available globally Monday afternoon. Despite the mishap, it seems that Netflix is remaining focused on bringing more live content to viewers.
“We’ll learn from it and we’ll get better We do have the fundamental infrastructure that we need,” Peters said, Sarandos adding that the company wants “to use live when it makes sense creatively, when it helps the content itself. So a reunion show that’s going to generate news and buzz, it really does play better live when people can enjoy it together… I do think sometimes those results-oriented shows do play out a little bit better on live and they do generate a lot of conversation.”
Of the failed live reunion, Sarandos added, “We were super disappointed to not be able to come across with the live product for everyone who wanted it on the Love Is Blind reunion. But we’re super thrilled people love the show. It does point to the kind of love for that brand, and for the growing love for those unscripted brands on Netflix. Some of them will be live.”
The special, along with the entirety of Season 4 and all previous seasons, is available to stream on Netflix.
