Hulu’s Oscars Live Stream Crashed Before the Last Two Awards

Hulu’s first attempt at live-streaming the Academy Awards did not go as planned. More than three hours into the 97th annual telecast, just as Emma Stone was presenting the next award, the livestream abruptly ended for many viewers––including yours truly––and displayed an error message declaring the event over. 

The outage cut off two of the night’s biggest moments: Best Actress, where Mikey Madison pulled off an upset over frontrunner Demi Moore (The Substance), and Best Picture, which went to Anora. Sean Baker made history as the second person to win four Oscars in a single night, a feat previously achieved by Walt Disney. Or so I’m told! My screen had already called it a night.

Disney, Hulu’s parent company, acknowledged the issue, attributing it to unspecified technical difficulties. In a statement to Deadline, a spokesperson apologized, saying, “This evening, we experienced technical and live stream issues on Hulu which impacted some Oscars viewers. We apologize for the experience and will make a full replay of the event available as soon as possible.” Some users had already encountered issues logging in at the start of the broadcast due to an earlier glitch.

Hulu isn’t the only streamer struggling with live events. Netflix faced backlash for buffering problems and frozen screens during the much-hyped Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight on November 15, which may even result in a class action lawsuit. Looks like cable may still have the upper hand for live events––at least for now.