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How to Watch Tonight’s Met Gala Red Carpet Livestream Online for Free

The "Fashion Is Art"—themed event will commence this evening. Here's how to get a front-row seat to all the unmissable looks and interviews.

By Stacia Datskovska Plus Icon

Stacia Datskovska

Senior Commerce Writer for WWD

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May 4, 2026, 4:39pm

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Teyana Taylor attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 05, 2025 in New York City

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The fashion set’s most-loved evening of the year has arrived, and it’s none other than the 2026 Met Gala — taking place Monday, May 4, at 6:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. PST. The dress code? “Fashion Is Art,” celebrating the kickoff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Costume Art” exhibition and inviting Met Gala attendees to use their ensembles as a mode of artistic expression while thinking about the “inherent relationship between clothing and the body.”

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As is traditional, the Met Gala raises money for said yearly exhibition. This time around, a record-breaking $42 million was drummed up, coming for the most part from Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos: lead sponsors of the spectacle and The Met’s Costume Institute both.

In 2026, the world-renowned event is being co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour. 400 guests are expected to take part in the glitzy, “see and be seen” function, as reported by the Associated Press.

‘Costume Art’ by Andrew Bolton

$75

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This is the official book of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Costume Art” exhibition for spring 2026, penned by chief curator in charge Andrew Bolton. It promises to examine the concept of the clothed body “through the lens of age, size, gender, and disability” while being a meditation on how fashion transforms the human physique and how the human physique, in turn, transforms fashion. The coffee table non-negotiable is also rich in visually alluring detail, from that careful debossing to the illuminating photographs within its pages.

Price upon publish date of this article: $75

Wish to tune in to the festivities live, without ever leaving home? E! will be hosting a Met Gala livestream — called “Live From E!: Met Gala 2026″ — with coverage starting at 6:00 p.m. EST. You don’t need to have cable to get a front-row seat to the unmissable proceedings, though, as E!’s Met Gala red carpet programming is available to stream on DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV, Peacock, and Sling. We’ll be walking you through the benefits of each live TV streaming platform below, including trial options that let you watch the Met Gala for free.

Jenna Ortega and Sabrina Carpenter attend the 2025 Met Gala in New York City. Courtesy Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

stream the met gala with peacock

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How to Watch the 2026 Met Gala Red Carpet Online for Free

Real-time fashion analysis on “Live From E!: Met Gala 2026″ will be provided by host Justin Sylvester, Emmy Award–winning TV personality Keltie Knight, style expert Zanna Roberts Rassi (who will have just come back from Louisville, following her Kentucky Derby correspondent duties on NBC), “Summer House’s” Ciara Miller, celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton, and fashion designer Christian Siriano. According to E! News, entertainment reporter Zuri Hall will also be helming the channel’s celebrity interviews as guests approach the museum’s instantly recognizable steps on Fifth Avenue. Even before that, E!’s own Erin Lim Rhodes will be greeting A-listers at The Pierre Hotel and asking them questions as they pose for the paparazzi and get whisked away in a cab.

New this year: E!’s Glambot experience, which is sure to capture only the starlets’ best angles.

Can’t wait to see how the likes of Beyoncé, Kidman, and Williams — as well as Met Gala host committee members and co-chairs Zoë Kravitz, Teyana Taylor, Sabrina Carpenter, and Doja Cat — interpret the phrase “Fashion Is Art”? Do so with the help of free trials or subscriptions to our editors’ favorite streaming services for pop culture news and entertainment.

EDITOR’s CHOICE

DirecTV

watch red carpet on directv

E! is found across DirecTV’s genre packs and streaming bundles — Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate, and Premier among them. All DirecTV subscriptions currently come with a five-day free trial for watching celebrities step onto the famed Met Gala carpet live online.

After that, DirecTV channel packages start at $84.99 a month, with a possibility to save up to $480 in the first two years of your membership. Once that carpet is rolled up, use DirecTV to stream more culture-defining media, from “Project Runway” to the O.G. “The Devil Wears Prada” (as part of the platform’s Disney+ add-on at no additional cost).

Hulu + Live TV

watch red carpet on hulu + live tv

Hulu + Live TV is another stellar choice for streaming the Met Gala online. It’s equipped with over 95 channels (E! is one), tacking on Disney+ and ESPN for your viewing pleasure — though if you’re a Met Gala armchair fashion critic, ESPN might not be coming in handy. The trial here is three days long, which is more than enough time to bear witness to everything that goes down on Monday. Outside of this trial period, Hulu + Live TV will cost you $89.99 a month.

Peacock

watch red carpet on peacock

Peacock has been called out by E! as the foremost way to watch its Met Gala coverage online (filmed not only at the museum but also New York City’s Lincoln Center). Right now, Peacock isn’t giving out free trials directly on its site, but workarounds exist in the form of Walmart+ and Instacart+ memberships — coming with their own free trials, as it happens. Peacock’s most popular and well-rounded offering is Premium, clocking in at $10.99 a month. Premium Plus allows you to go sans ads at $16.99 a month.

Sling

watch red carpet on sling

Last but not least is Sling: a beloved live TV destination that carries E! in its Blue and Orange & Blue plans. While the former goes from $45.99 a month, the latter grants you access to more channels (and thousands of on-demand movies and shows) with pricing beginning at $60.99 monthly. After Monday, you’ll be able to use Sling to binge E!’s “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” reruns, future not-to-miss broadcasts of culture’s biggest happenings, and everything in between. At the time of this writing, Sling does not offer free trials.

When Is the Met Gala? What Time Does the Met Gala Start?

The Met Gala will be held on Monday, May 4, at 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST. In past years, Met Gala red carpet arrivals have lasted for approximately three hours. After posing for the papparazzi on the steps of The Met, celebrities will be ushered inside the institution for a dinner, a performance, and an exclusive tour of the new exhibition: “Costume Art.” These latter parts of the Met Gala agenda are not televised.

Who Will Be at the Met Gala This Year?

You can expect to see stars like Williams, Kidman, Carpenter, Kravitz (with Harry Styles?), and Taylor walking up the carpeted steps on May 4, with a notable appearance being that of Beyoncé: since the last time she showed face at the Met Gala was exactly a decade ago. Fans speculate that BTS will also make their debut at the event, and it’s not a stretch of the imagination to assume some of the Kardashians will be in town, too, along with the Bezoses — honorary chairs and primary donors — Rihanna (whose habit it is to come fashionably late), Zendaya, Hailey Bieber, and cultural sensations, like Connor Storrie, Hudson Williams, and Sarah Pidgeon, who were thrust into the public eye not too long ago but have already become red carpet staples.

Met Gala Fashion Predictions

Based on the Met Gala’s sartorial directives for 2026, we’re anticipating to spot sculptural gowns, embroidered capes, gravity-defying hairdos, and nails that moonlight as canvases for creativity. Per The Met’s Costume Institute, the “Costume Art” exhibit will “examine the centrality of the dressed body, juxtaposing garments and works of art from across the Museum’s vast collection.” That being said, ready yourself for some truly clever nods to The Met’s standout artworks, not to mention intentional attention brought upon the human form — utilizing sheer fabrics, tight silhouettes, and other fashion maneuvers to draw in the eye and generate headlines. Unlike the Cannes Film Festival, after all, the Met Gala has no prohibitions against naked dressing.

Zoë Kravitz at the Met Gala on September 13, 2021, demonstrating that celebrities have never turned away from showing some skin on its carpet. Courtesy Mike Coppola/Getty Images

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Meet the Author

Stacia Datskovska is a Senior Commerce Writer at WWD. Previously, she worked at ELLE DECOR as an assistant digital editor, covering all things luxury, culture, and lifestyle through a design lens. Her bylines over the past five years have appeared in USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Teen Vogue, Boston Globe, Food & Wine, and more. Prior to joining ELLE DECOR, Datskovska learned the ins and outs of e-commerce at Mashable, where she tested products, covered tentpole sales events, and curated gift guide roundups. She graduated from NYU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international relations. Datskovska regularly reports on trending news and must-stream cultural happenings.

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How to Watch Tonight’s Met Gala Red Carpet Livestream Online for Free

Recent Articles by Stacia Datskovska

In this article

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How to Watch the Met Gala From Home This Year

‘Costume Art’ by Andrew Bolton

DirecTV

Hulu + Live TV

Peacock

Sling

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‘Costume Art’ by Andrew Bolton

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