‘House Of Cards’ Season 3 Leaks On Netflix, Internet Flips Out

Netflix had an “oops” moment the Internet isn’t likely to forget anytime soon. For a brief moment on February 11, 2015, the majority of House of Cards season three was available to watch on the streaming platform.

At about 4:45 PM EST, various news outlets and publications started reporting that Netflix had released House of Cards season three early. While some Twitter users were saying Netflix had “pulled a Beyonce,” the streaming service apparently didn’t mean to release the episodes before the previously-announced date of February 27; within about 30 minutes, Netflix disabled the option to watch the show’s third season.

The Hollywood Reporter said Netflix quickly sent out a press release after the leak, blaming a technical error: “Due to a technical glitch some Frank Underwood fans got a sneak peak. He’ll be back on Netflix on Feb. 27.” And fans definitely caught a glimpse of the upcoming story; ten out of the 13 season three House of Cards

episodes were available all at once, including the episode summaries. (You can read them here, but there are, of course, spoilers involved.)

Internet users were having a heyday spreading the news about the House of Cards leak and claiming they were already watching the first few episodes from the third season:

The official House of Cards Twitter account also jokingly tweeted about the situation:

And a character account set up for Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey’s Emmy Award-winning role) provided another humorous post:

Even though Netflix accidentally released season three of House of Cards, the streaming service did a top-notch job of capitalizing on the the leak’s surrounding frenzy to further excite audiences for the season’s official premiere (not that it really needs it).