• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, April 17, 2023

A technical glitch infuriated fans by causing a delay of more than an hour in Netflix’s much-anticipated “Love Is Blind” Season 4 reunion special on Sunday evening. 

The event was only the second original event to be livestreamed on Netflix. The first, “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” in March, appeared to go off without a hitch. 

The live special to kick off the new season of the hit “Love Is Blind” reality series was heavily promoted, and was supposed to start at 8 pm ET. 

Fifteen minutes later, Netflix posted a message saying the show would start in another 15 minutes.

Instead, the next word came at 9:29 pm, when Netflix tweeted: “To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon... we are incredibly sorry that the Love is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned. We're filming it now and we'll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Again, thank you and sorry." 

The recorded special was reportedly available on Netflix later on Sunday night in the U.S., but it will not be available globally until 3 pm ET on Monday.

As of this writing, Netflix has provided no explanation for the embarrassing glitch. 

Many fans took to social to complain that Netflix seems to be offering a lower-quality experience despite having raised prices and done away with free password sharing, and competing streamers mocked the much-hyped, fizzled event.

Livestreaming is a major revenue and audience attraction/retention opportunity, but at least at this stage, also a risky technical proposition, even for the major streamers. 

NFL fans complained loudly about streaming quality issues when Amazon Prime Video debuted Thursday Night Football last fall.

Netflix is set to be the first to iivestream a a major awards show, the Screen Actors' Guild awards ceremony, next year.