Hulu apologizes to outraged 2025 Oscars viewers for ‘disastrous’ streaming mishap

Hulu has issued an apology to 2025 Oscars viewers whose livestream prematurely cut out before the final two, and arguably the most important, awards were handed out.

Moments before Mikey Madison received the award for Best Actress and her movie Anora won for Best Picture at Sunday’s ceremony, multiple viewers who were watching the show on Hulu reported that the live feed had abruptly ended.

“Hulu shutting off the Oscars saying its over because nobody contemplated it might run long (which it always does) is peak level incompetence,” one outraged subscriber wrote on X, alongside a photo of their TV showing the message: “Thank you for watching. This live event has now ended. You may exit playback and select something else to watch.”

“Half the world being simply unable to watch the final 2 awards bc hulu’s f*** ass is down is actually insane,” a second said, with a third agreeing: “This is bad. I’ve tried to be fair but I honestly think the Oscars broadcast has been a disaster for Hulu.”

Another demanded that Hulu issue “every single one of their subscribers a refund for this bulls***!” “Otherwise, we have a very strong case for a class action lawsuit about false advertising,” they threatened. “They promoted the hell of out being able to watch #TheOscars on @Hulu and no one can!”

“Y’all better give everyone a free month at the very least,” another said. “App crashing and logging people out on Oscar night. This sucks ass.”

Hulu has since addressed the Oscars mishap, with a Disney spokesperson telling the Daily Mail in a statement: “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.”

The replay is available to stream now on Hulu.

After decades of airing on ABC, the 97th Academy Awards were live-streamed on Hulu for the first time. Both ABC and Hulu are owned by Disney.

While Sunday marked the first time cord-cutters could watch the ceremony on Hulu’s standard plan, subscribers of the more expensive Hulu Live TV have been able to tune into the awards show in years past.

Sean Baker’s sex worker rom-com Anora went home with a total of five trophies. In addition to Best Actress and Best Picture, it won for Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.

Find the full list of winners here.