Image ID 200972990 © via Christian Bertrand | Dreamstime.com
Hulu has pulled the 50-minute news special
Astroworld: Concert From Hell after backlash from viewers who thought the documentary had been produced by the streaming service.
The show, which was presented as the first episode in a series, had actually been an investigative piece done by a local news outlet in Houston, Texas. Viewers expressed distaste and ire at the offering, especially as it had only been less than a month since the tragedy that claimed 10 lives, including that of nine-year-old
Ezra Blount.
“Hulu really moved fast as hell to make a documentary and named it
Astroworld: Concert From Hell. I am crying at everyone trying to make their profit from that event,” Jonathan “Pacman” Tucker, an e-sports player,
tweeted.
In a separate tweet that garnered over 5,000 retweets and 35,000 likes, a user said: “Hulu making a documentary about Astroworld is in poor taste all around. People are still burying their loved ones. The legal cases haven’t even started.”
According to the LA Times, Hulu removed the special shortly after backlash erupted on social media.
“This was not a Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion,” a Hulu spokesperson clarified with
The Hollywood Reporter.
As to why the show was aired on the service in the first place, it appears that
KTRK-TV, the Houston station that created the documentary, is owned by the ABC Network. In turn, ABC and Hulu are both owned by Disney, and Hulu streams ABC programs on its site.
Astroworld: Concert From Hell is still available to view on
KTRK-TV’s
website.
[via
Los Angeles Times and
The Hollywood Reporter, cover image via
Christian Bertrand | Dreamstime.com]