A new documentary special delving into the Astroworld tragedy has been taken down fromHulu. On Wednesday, the 50-minute doc, titledAstroworld: Concert from Hell, was added to the streaming service. It has since been scrubbed from the streamer after a social media outcry accusing Hulu of capitalizing on the tragedy.
To be clear, the documentary wasn’t a Hulu Original. It was produced by the ABC-owned Houston station KTRK. A Hulu spokesperson commented on the removal ofAstroworld: Concert from Hellby telling Variety, “This was an investigative local news special from ABC13/KTRK-TV in Houston that originally aired on November 20th. This was nota Hulu documentary and has since been removed to avoid confusion.”
This refers to the social media backlash that ensued after the documentary was made available for streaming on Hulu. One particularly popular tweet read, “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.Great documentariesare done when all the facts are laid out. Not enough time has passed to fully discuss this.”
Astroworld was taking place with Travis Scott doing his final set on Nov. 5 when tragedy struck. A crowd of 50,000 people surged, bringing about immense injuries to many fans attending the festival and leaving ten of them dead. Scott has been holed up at home in the time since, saying in a statement he was “devastated” by what happened, claiming he didn’t know about the fatalities when he was performing on stage. He has given refunds to all Astroworld attendees and has offered to cover funeral expenses for the victims, though some families have been refusing his offer.
“Over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons,” a statement released by Scott last month read. “He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each family’s wishes on how they’d best like to be connected.”
Scott’s attorney added, “There has been multiple finger-pointing, much of which has been by city officials, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from original statements. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner was quoted in the New York Times as saying, ‘You cannot just close when you got 50,000 and over 50,000 individuals. We have to worry aboutrioting, riots, when you have a group that’s that young.’ Yet, just a short time later, Chief Finner states the responsibility to stop the show falls on Travis.”
TheAstroworld: Concert from Helldescription reads, “Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival was supposed to be the concert of a lifetime. But it turned into a tragic nightmare. A minute-by-minute look at what happened in the crowd, the young victims who were killed, and what happens next.”
Astroworld: Concert from Hellis no longerstreamingon Hulu. Details about the special come to us fromVariety.
