ITV Oscars viewers blast ‘utterly painful’ coverage minutes in as film fans ‘switch off’ Jonathan Ross show

ITV’s coverage of this year’s Oscars has come under fire just minutes into its debut on Sunday evening.

For the first time in two decades, Sky no longer had the rights to air the awards do in the UK and ITV decided Jonathan Ross was the man to breathe new life into the star-studded ceremony in 2024.

He was joined by guests Richard Armitage, Ben Bailey Smith, Yinka Bokinni and Faye Ripley to dissect this year’s nominees.

After welcoming his guests, Ross asked the panel if they’d watched the widely-nominated Barbie and Oppenheimer films.

Ross also abruptly cut to red carpet reporter correspondent Ross King, cutting Bailey Smith off mid-sentence.

But it was Ross’s monologue that followed that sparked the biggest reaction – although not for all the right reasons.

Ross began to reel off several jokes about the year in film, including one where he called the Barbenheimer phenomenon “Oppenbarbie”, referred to Cillian Murphy’s turn as the physicist as “Nukey Blinders”, and described the length of Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon being the same as “264 TikTok videos”.

As a result, several viewers took to X, formerly Twitter, to blast the coverage, with some branding it “painful” and others “turning off”.

One upset viewer penned: “This Jonathan Ross ITV pre Academy Awards coverage is utterly painful. Awful jokes, forced laughs from his few guests, HELL ON EARTH #Oscars.”

“Watching #theosars #Oscars live. The #ITV coverage is definitely a bit rubbish,” added a second before a third gave up altogether: “Turned off ITV’s coverage. It’s not good. Match of the Day until Kimmel is on. #Oscars.”

Elsewhere, a fourth weighed in: “@ITV’s #Oscars coverage looking a complete disaster already, and we’re only 5mins in.”

“The ITV #Oscars coverage is painfully bad. Painful,” said a fifth while another hit out: “Actually cringing at Jonathan Ross and his #Oscars commentary #Oscar.”

“Whoever wrote the script for the autocue that Ross is awkwardly reading from needs to find another job! This ITV coverage so far makes Sky’s terrible efforts of recent years look polished! #Oscars,” said another fuming viewer.

However, there was some support for Ross and ITV’s attempts to cover the awards ceremony.

“Nukey blinders. Incredible work Wossy. #oscars #ITV,” one person praised before another said: “Loving watching @wossy present the #Oscars on @ITV – but they’ve missed a trick. It needs some @boydhilton magic.”

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As ITV’s coverage rolled on until Jimmy Fallon took over proceedings in LA, the panel began to discuss who they felt were most deserving of the gongs.

However, much to the surprise of Armitage, it soon transpired he was the only fans of Oppenheimer – a film which bagged an incredible 13 nods.

A number of Brits are in the running for awards on Sunday night, including Emily Blunt and many more.