NASA put it out there that they were to be showing a live Mars rover landing (according to what the news reported).  How big was the lie?

Indeed, this dangerous terrain required Perseverance to make the most precise Red Planet touchdown ever. The rover's landing ellipse was just 4.8 miles long by 4.1 miles wide (7.7 by 6.6 kilometers), compared to 4 miles by 12 miles (7 by 12 km) for Curiosity.

Who is this mysterious "they" that people always reference in questions?  Can you provide a link to a quote from someone in charge at NASA where it was promised that you would get to see a live landing?

The video provided shows exactly what is available to see.  If you mounted cameras on your car and filmed yourself pulling into a parking space, what do you think the viewpoints would show?  There is no animation posted.

Was anyone apart from space enthusiasts really interested anyway? Live or otherwise?

Notice how the manufactured hysteria has now totally subsided and the media and it's people have gone back to crime and sleaze. Such is the short attention span of the public with anything to do with space. So much for certain ridiculous hoped-for discoveries being "the most important discovery in history". In truth, nobody cares.

It wasn't literally live in the sense that there would be a delay in the signal.

You're a fücking idiot.  Of course it wasn't live because there's at least a 7-minute delay between transmission from Mars and reception on Earth.  Haven't you ever learned about radio waves traveling at the speed of light?  It's not instantaneous.

What you are claiming was an animation was a video at a slow speed. It is NOT an animation.

This 'question' is the lie.

Yes, it takes some time for the signals to get to Earth from Mars. So, the data was live in terms of it's arrival here.

The video from the lander took a while to download, and so was not seen at the same time as the landing. But, it does show what was happening at the time of the landing.

Perseverance’s flashy new cameras are expected to have captured much of the landing process. A camera mounted on the back shell of the spacecraft is pointed upward. It recorded a view of the parachutes deploying as it slowed to land. Then, beneath it is a downward-pointing camera on the descent stage, which is supposed to have filmed its first touch-contact with the ground on Mars. This suite of technology will provide us with the most detailed video and photo records of landing on a neighboring world yet. Lori Glaze, who heads the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told reporters:    We’re going to be able to watch ourselves land for the first time on another planet.There wasn’t, however, a livestream of the footage, as we’re accustomed to with International Space Station events and rocket launches from Earth. The reason for this is a lag in data relay from Mars to Earth, which is slower than even old dial-up connections. Editor’s Note: the video is now available. See it here.