Low point: Oscars viewership down 16%

Oscar viewership was down 16% from last year and reached its lowest point since 2009, with 36.6m people watching the Neil Patrick Harris-hosted awards show on ABC Sunday night.

The Nielsen company’s preliminary estimate of US viewership was down from the 43.7m people who watched last year, when host Ellen DeGeneres attracted attention for posting a “selfie” with various movie stars and having pizzas delivered to the audience.

Last year’s show, which also had the star power of Frozen, Matthew McConaughey and U2, reached the biggest audience for any Academy Awards show since 2000.

The Oscars tend to be the most-watched entertainment programme of the year on television in the US, often second only to the Super Bowl. But viewership can be affected by the relative popularity of the movies up for big awards, and best picture winner Birdman wasn’t a particularly big box office draw. American Sniper was the most popular movie, but received one relatively minor award.

There was also a movement among black viewers to boycott the awards show because all of the major acting nominees were white.

This year’s audience was the lowest since 2009, when Slumdog Millionaire won best picture.