Fans eager to watch the first installment of Joss Whedon's direct-to-web musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog flooded the site Tuesday, causing it to crash.

The first installment, which was scheduled to go live Tuesday, has been down since early morning.

"Traffic is through the roof.... We were hit beyond the servers' capabilities," said *Dr. Horrible *co-creator and writer Maurissa Tancharoen, who estimated that the site clocked 200,000 hits per hour.

Web meltdown notwithstanding, the first act of* Dr. Horrible* can be downloaded at the iTunes Store for $2. The second and third portions will be available Thursday and Saturday, respectively, with each episode of the miniseries available for download through July 29. A "season pass" for all three episodes costs $4. After the download period, the series will be released as a DVD with plenty of extras.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is the latest project from geek scribe Joss Whedon. It tells the story of a wannabe villain battling his archnemesis, Captain Hammer, and struggling to woo his neighbor, Penny. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse, came up with the idea for the internet musical during the Hollywood writers' strike earlier this year.

So far, the first installment, or act, has been wildly popular, outpacing shows like Lost, The Wire and The Daily Show to rank No. 1 on the iTunes list of most popular television series.

The creative team behind the miniseries, which includes Tancharoen, Whedon and his two brothers, Jed and Zack Whedon, released a statement Tuesday about the barrage of visitors: "We love you for crashing the site, we really do. In the meantime, those of you who have iTunes capabilities can go there and get your fix. Our site should be up and running again in a few hours. Your support is warming our hearts and kicking our asses. So thank you thank you."

[h/t to EOnline]

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