{"id":93971,"date":"2015-02-24T15:11:52","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T15:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=93971"},"modified":"2015-02-24T15:11:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T15:11:52","slug":"oscars-audience-reaches-six-year-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=93971","title":{"rendered":"Oscars audience reaches six-year-low"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US TV broadcast of this year’s Oscars ceremony on Sunday scored the event’s lowest ratings in six years, averaging 36.6 million.<\/p>\n

They were down by 16% on last year’s ratings, according to Nielsen figures published by Variety.<\/p>\n

First-time host Neil Patrick Harris received lukewarm reviews, while some have blamed the drop on a lack of nominations for films with mass appeal.<\/p>\n

Last year 43.7 million tuned in when Ellen DeGeneres was at the helm.<\/p>\n

DeGeneres had powered the show to a 10-year ratings high and proved a tough act to follow.<\/p>\n

Critics were unimpressed by Harris’s performance during the three-and-a-half hour awards show, which saw him stripping to his pants for a Birdman and Whiplash inspired sketch – something the LA Times reviewcalled “embarrassing”.<\/p>\n

\"Birdman\"Birdman is being rolled out across more US cinemas in the wake of its best picture win<\/div>\n

Harris has previously won four Primetime Emmys for his skills hosting Broadway’s Tony awards.<\/p>\n

However The Washington Post commented: “It was bound to happen eventually. Neil Patrick Harris, the man who can host anything, finally stumbled.”<\/p>\n

‘Hopelessly detached’<\/span><\/p>\n

Not everyone has blamed Harris for the ceremony’s lack of appeal though, with some suggesting the predictability of this year’s awards race may have put TV viewers off.<\/p>\n

Many of this year’s prizes were awarded to favourites including Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore who took the top acting prizes on the night.<\/p>\n

Birdman triumphed over Boyhood to win both best picture and best director for Alejandro Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

The New York Times has suggested the gap between films that are popular in US cinemas and those winning Oscars may also explain a ratings dip, calling the awards “hopelessly detached from movie viewers.”<\/p>\n

Box-office smash American Sniper went home with only the sound-editing prize, while the second biggest ticket seller of the best picture nominations, The Imitation Game, also took just one prize.<\/p>\n

\"Neil<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Host Harris appeared on stage in his pants as part of a Birdman-inspired sketch<\/div>\n

“After months of intense prize campaigning by the Oscar-savvy Weinstein Company, it lost in seven of its eight nominated categories, winning only for best adapted screenplay,” said The New York Times.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Birdman’s best picture win, Fox Searchlight announced it is doubling the number of US cinemas showing the film to more than 1,000.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s TV broadcast was the Academy Awards’ lowest-rated show since 2009, which attracted 36.3 million viewers when Hugh Jackman hosted and Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner.<\/p>\n

However, US journalist Mark Harris has suggested on Twitter that viewing figures are “basically stable”, writing: “With one exception, the Oscar audience has ranged from 36-46 million for 30 years.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US TV broadcast of this year’s Oscars ceremony on Sunday scored the event’s lowest ratings in six years, averaging 36.6 million. They were down by 16% on last year’s ratings, according to Nielsen figures published by Variety. First-time host Neil Patrick Harris received lukewarm reviews, while some have blamed the drop on a lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":93977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[34,6],"class_list":["post-93971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ghana-standards-authority","tag-togbe-afede"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}