WASHINGTON – Netflix apologised on Sunday after its service buckled under the strain of the popularity of a live-streamed reunion episode of the fourth season of dating reality show Love Is Blind (2020 to present).

Thousands of users reported that Netflix streaming was unavailable on Sunday, according to monitoring website Downdetector.

#LoveIsBlindLive was the top global trending topic on Twitter, with Netflix building up anticipation with tweets counting down to the live stream.

The company also promised that the live reunion would be the first time that viewers would be able to help pick the questions for participants.

But after the widespread outages, Netflix apologised and said it would film the episode and upload it for viewers to see as soon as possible. The company later tweeted that Netflix users would be able to watch it on Monday from noon Pacific time (on Tuesday, 3am Singapore time), a day later than the original intended time.

As many as 12,700 outages were reported by users as at 8.05am on Monday, according to Downdetector.

Love Is Blind, where couples pair up and get engaged before meeting in person, is one of Netflix’s biggest unscripted hits.

The series helped fuel subscriptions during pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and has remained popular. It is produced by Kinetic Content, which was acquired by media mogul Peter Chernin’s North Road last year.

Netflix has begun to experiment with live programming, starting with a comedy special from American actor-comedian Chris Rock earlier in 2023.

The reunion episode for Love Is Blind was set to be the biggest test for Netflix’s ability to expand beyond its on-demand video roots. BLOOMBERG