{"id":661984,"date":"2026-04-04T02:21:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661984\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:21:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:21:40","slug":"elle-duncan-slams-critics-after-netflixs-mlb-opening-night-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661984\/","title":{"rendered":"Elle Duncan slams critics after Netflix’s MLB Opening night debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major League Baseball\u2019s opening night coverage has been the subject of polarizing opinions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this is something Netflix is no stranger to.<\/p>\n

Netflix had major streaming issues during its airing of boxing in late 2024<\/a>, during Jake Paul\u2019s fight with Mike Tyson, which also featured Amanda Serrano\u2019s bout with Katie Taylor, showing a consistent lag. This even led Netflix to be the target of a $50 million lawsuit over the quality of the streaming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"NetflixNetflix-branded baseball float is seen during the MLB Opening Night Game: Yankees vs. Giants, at Momo\u2019s on March 25, 2026 in San Francisco, California. Getty Images for Netflix<\/p>\n

The company is not quite in the same position now following their airing of Yankees-Giants as part of MLB Opening Day, but the online chirping is loud, which Elle Duncan \u2014 who joined Netflix<\/a> as a host following a lengthy tenure on ESPN \u2014 responded to on a recent episode of \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d this week.<\/p>\n

Critics have pointed to non-baseball personalities being used and a new-look scorebug as some of the primary issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever there\u2019s criticism that I saw like, \u2018It was just so Netflix. It was not for baseball purists,\u201d Duncan acknowledged, adding, \u201cThis was not for baseball purists. You\u2019ll watch it anywhere. This was for the baseball-curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan noted that the broadcast is intended for a broader audience beyond traditional baseball fans. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what Netflix is doing in the sports world is, yes, for the people that are always going to watch those sports, but also the people that maybe tuned into to watch\u00a0\u201cLove is Blind,\u201d\u00a0saw the button for \u2018Opening Day on Netflix,\u2019 and thought, \u2018All right, I\u2019ll check it out,\u2019\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Duncan disagrees with the criticisms \u2014 which include missing the first-ever Automatic Ball Strike challenge due to a mid-inning dugout interview \u2014 and mentioned that baseball fans ultimately expected something they weren\u2019t going to fully get.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like going to a Mexican restaurant and bitching that they don\u2019t have barbecue,\u201d said Duncan. \u201cThey advertise as a Mexican restaurant. It\u2019s your fault that you somehow thought they were somehow gonna serve barbecue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jos\u00e9Jos\u00e9 Caballero hits an RBI double against the San Francisco Giants in the seventh inning on Opening Day at Oracle Park on March 25, 2026, in San Francisco, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

She later added: \u201cNetflix has made no qualms about who they are. We\u2019re going to eventicize these things, we\u2019re gonna pull people from the Netflix universe. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netflix will broadcast the Home Run Derby on July 13 and the \u201cField of Dreams\u201d game between the Phillies and Twins one month later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major League Baseball\u2019s opening night coverage has been the subject of polarizing opinions. And this is something Netflix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,18513,40646,62,66,185,4298,7486],"class_list":{"0":"post-661984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-mlb-opening-day","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-entertainment","16":"tag-sports-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116344055719365092","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}