Oscars 2015: Host Neil Patrick Harris takes TV ratings to a six-year-low

The How I Met Your Mother star had a tough act to follow in Ellen DeGeneres

Neil Patrick Harris’ Oscars hosting stint failed to win over viewers on Sunday night, as the film awards ceremony recorded its lowest TV ratings in six years.

Some 36.6 million people tuned in to watch Birdman, Eddie Redmayne and Julianne Moore take home the big prizes – a figure down 16 per cent on last year, Nielsen reports.

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres led the 2014 event to a ten-year high, successfully attracting 42.7 million her many well-received gags (bar Liza Minnelli’s reaction to that drag queen one).

But Harris’ efforts were met with lukewarm reviews, as his generally tame jokes fell flat with the star-studded audience. He drew laughs after appearing on stage in Birdman-style “tighty whities”, before going on to drop uncomfortable diversity references, involve Selma star David Oyelowo in a dull skit and make a badly-timed dig at director Dana Perry’s dress immediately after she dedicated an Oscar to her son who died of suicide (she, however, found it funny).

The 2015 Oscars also disappointed on social media, dropping from 11.2 million tweets last year to 5.9 million. To be fair to Harris, 2014’s massive number was largely thanks to DeGeneres’ famous selfie, featuring the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and, erm, Peter Nyong’o, little brother of Lupita.

Ellen DeGeneres led the 2014 Oscars selfie

Harris managed to avoid “doing a Seth MacFarlane”, whose risqué jokes about domestic violence, Jews and female nudity sparked outrage from the Anti-Defamation League, and was far more successful than former host Jon Stewart, who drew just 32 million in 2008.

Neil Patrick Harris' best and worst Oscars jokes

Other factors to bear in mind were the predictability of the major awards and the relative lack of movies appealing to mainstream audiences.

The Oscars TV ratings record from 1998 is yet to be beaten, when 57.3 million tuned in to see Titanic scoop eleven gongs.

The full 2015 ceremony was broadcast live in more than 200 countries, the Academy confirmed.