ITV viewers took major issue with a continuous glitch in the network’s Oscars coverage.
Jonathan Ross presented the coverage of the 98th Academy Awards, which was fronted by Conan O’Brien in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on Sunday.
UK movie fans stayed up late to watch the ceremony and the red carpet for free on ITV for the third year in a row.
Viewers were frustrated by an “awful” technical blunder that overshadowed O’Brien’s pre-recorded segment at the start of the show and his opening monologue and begged ITV to “fix” it.
O’Brien kicked off the segment in the makeup studio, seeming annoyed that he looked like Amy Madigan’s character Aunt Gladys from Weapons. He was then edited into a slew of the biggest films of the past 12 months.
The sequence saw him accidentally make Brad Pitt’s F1 character crash, beat Timothee Chalamet’s ping-pong champion character Marty Supreme and interrupt an emotional scene in Hamnet.
Towards the end of the segment, a beeping noise began to overshadow what O’Brien was saying and continued for the rest of the sequence.
The technical blunder carried on when O’Brien took to the stage for his opening monologue, making it hard for viewers to hear his jokes.
Fans flooded X with their irritation, with one writing: “What in the beep is going on at the ITV Oscars live stream?” while another added: “Can ITV fix the sound wtf.”
”Anyone got that awful feedback noise on the itv #oscars coverage?” someone else wanted to know.
“For everyone saying there are sound issues on ITV’s coverage of the #Oscars, it looks it’s not just us in the UK. People in other countries are complaining too so it must be,” said another.
The gaffe appeared to have been fixed by the time the first award was presented.
Some viewers were also unimpressed with Ross’ handling of the coverage, calling him out for his “embarrassing” apparent mispronunciation of several stars’ names.
The presenter fronted ITV’s coverage live from London alongside rising presenter Elle Osili-Wood, Bafta nominated writer and producer Samson Kayo, and TikTok star Fred Asquith.
Ross also appeared to mutter “F**k” under his breath when he thought the broadcast had cut back to LA after he had mixed up Javier Bardem and Benicio del Toro while discussing Bardem’s political statement onstage.
“Is Jonathan Ross intentionally pronouncing everyone’s name strangely,” one viewer asked.
“Might start a drinking game where I take a shot every time Jonathan Ross pronounces a name weird,” another added.
