Walt Disney TV’s Rob Mills, the man who was in charge of the 2025 Oscars telecast for ABC, is opening up about some of the highs and lows of this year’s event.
The 97th Academy Awards were held on Sunday, March 2, 2027. Hosted by Conan O’Brien, the show saw Anora take home the coveted Best Picture Award, while Adrien Brody won Best Actor and Mikey Madison was awarded Best Actress.
What did ABC say about Hulu’s Oscars issues and Conan O’Brien?
This year, the Oscars were streamed live on Hulu for the first time ever; however, many subscribers ran into issues. Notably, the Hulu livestream shut down after the show went 30 minutes over its scheduled time, meaning those trying to watch the show live through the streaming platform were unable to see who was awarded Best Actress and Best Picture.
Speaking with Variety, Mills called the situation “unfortunate” and said that next year will be a “better experience.”
“This is not my area of expertise, and obviously you feel bad for the people who were trying to watch the show — it’s unfortunate,” Mills said. “I think the best thing to do is look at it as a way to figure it out and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s not the first time this has happened [in streaming] and probably won’t be the last…but we are at least moving into this world where we are meeting viewers where they are.
“At the Walt Disney Company as a whole, our superpower is we have a broadcaster, we have a premium streamer, so anywhere you want to watch this show, we want to make sure you can watch this. And for the most part, that works out great. It works spectacularly well with Dancing With the Stars. Onward and upward, and next year will be a better experience.”
With this being the first year that O’Brien hosted the Oscars, Mills said he thought that “Conan absolutely nailed it.”
“I know we would love to have him back,” Mills said. “I don’t know if this counts as an official offer, but I really hope he wants to come back. It was a joy and a privilege, and probably the only sort of methadone I could have for not being able to do the show with Jimmy Kimmel.”
