Harris Leads Oscars To Six-Year Ratings Low

Television ratings for the Oscars broadcast in the US fell 16% this year after lukewarm reviews for first-time host Neil Patrick Harris.

Sunday night's show averaged 36.6 million viewers, down from 43.7 million in 2014, according to Nielsen ratings cited by Variety.

The figures showed that the number of people tuning in to see Eddie Redmayne walk away with the best actor prize were the lowest in six years.

Some blamed the relative lack of mass-appeal movies among those nominated, while for others the predictability of the awards races this year didn't help - almost all of the categories were won by the favourites.

The Oscars' hosting job is a notoriously thankless task . Previous low-points of recent years include the wince-inducing duo of James Franco and Anne Hathaway in 2011.

Harris, 41, who has a strong following among younger viewers as the star of sitcom How I Met Your Mother, was seen as a bridge between older viewers and the younger audiences advertisers covet most.

But he had a tough act to follow: last year's host Ellen DeGeneres powered the show to a 10-year ratings high.

But critics were scathing about Harris' stewardship of this year's three-and-a-half hour Academy Awards show, including his stripping to his underwear in a skit about best picture winner Birdman.

Jokes which came in for particular scorn included his "I could eat her with her spoon" line about Reese Witherspoon, and a quip about having balls to wear a pom-pom covered dress, immediately after an Oscar winner had referred to her son's suicide.

Most liked his opening song-and-dance number, and his first joke about honouring "Hollywood's best and whitest" - a reference to the lack of non-white nominees at the show.

The Super Bowl earlier this month became the most watched TV show in US history with a record 114.5 million viewers.