Oscar TV audience rises to 40.3 million

HIT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

MacFarlane, 39, fared better on Facebook, Twitter and blogs, where 13 percent declared him the "best host ever", according to conversations tracked by social media research firm Fizziology.

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And MacFarlane didn't win over the online world just because of his wit. Seven percent said he was "the sexiest" host, Fizziology said on Monday.

Many TV critics were equally put off by the song and dance heavy Oscars telecast, which ran to three and 1/2 hours.

"Mr. MacFarlane didn't ruin the show. But the show almost ruined the Oscars," wrote Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times.

Los Angeles TV critic Mary McNamara seemed to agree, calling the Oscar telecast "long, self-indulgent and dull even by the show's time-honored dull-defining standards" despite the valiant efforts of performers Adele and Barbra Streisand and "a surprisingly witty" Daniel Day-Lewis in his Best Actor acceptance speech.

Hank Stuever of the Washington Post said that MacFarlane "did a fairly middle-of-the-road job as host on a fairly middle-of-the-road telecast".

ABC, a unit of Walt Disney, also reported growth to its online and social media platforms, saying that its Oscar.com website had attracted 15.8 million visitors since the Academy Award nominations were announced in early January - a 28 percent increase over 2012.

Last year, when Billy Crystal hosted for the ninth time, some 39.3 million people watched the Oscars ceremony on television.

"Argo," the Iran hostage thriller and box office hit, was the big winner at Sunday's ceremony, taking home Best Picture and two other Oscars.

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