Ratings "Born This Way" was first broadcast on April 26, 2011, in the United States. It averaged a 3.4/11
Nielsen rating/share in the
18–49 demographic, and also averaged nearly 8.62 million American viewers during its initial airing. The first hour of the show garnered 8.3 million American viewers and a 3.3/9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, despite airing simultaneously with a rerun of
NCIS on
CBS,
The Biggest Loser on
NBC,
No Ordinary Family on
ABC, and
One Tree Hill on
The CW. The last half-hour of the episode had 8.5 million American viewers, as well as a 3.4/9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, despite airing alongside a rerun of
NCIS: Los Angeles on
CBS,
Dancing with the Stars on
ABC,
The Voice on
NBC, and
Hellcats on
The CW. In the UK, the episode was watched by 2.52 million viewers (2.087 million on
E4, and 433,000 on E4+1), becoming the most-watched show on E4 and E4 +1 for the week, and the most-watched show on cable for the week.
Critical response "Born This Way" was given a positive reception by many critics of the show. Erica Futterman of
Rolling Stone and Sandra Gonzalez of
Entertainment Weekly both considered it to be an improvement from the previous episode. Futterman wrote that it "gave us the charm, wit and just-zany-enough-to-be-plausible plot lines we were sorely missing after last week's predictable" episode, and added, "Even better: the episode didn't feel as long as the 90 minutes it clocked in at." Emily Yahr of
The Washington Post agreed about the extended length, and did not like what she called "lame attempts to fill time", which she said "detracted from what started as a decent episode". She did, however, cite several "promising storylines", including Rachel's, and noted, "Usually, New Directions leader Rachel Berry is a caricature of all things annoying—but this episode, we see her genuinely struggling with wanting to love herself the way she is". The
Houston Chronicle Bobby Hankinson summed it up as follows: "Not an epic episode, just sort of … meh."
The A.V. Club Emily VanDerWerff gave it a "B", and wrote that she "finally got a sense that, yes, this second season has been building toward something and has been trying to tell an emotional story, as well as a humorous one. 'Born This Way', for the first time in a long time, made me feel like I could say I was a fan of
Glee without a million qualifiers." Gary Mills of the
Florida Times-Union felt that the episode didn't live up to its hype, but also said that he wasn't disappointed. Brett Berk of
Vanity Fair reacted positively, and noted that by "focusing on what makes these lovable dorks, well, lovable dorks—and not pop, or high-school, superstars—tonight's episode, if a bit tidily, reminded us that these are supposed to be kids". Matt Zoller Seitz of
Salon thought that "Born This Way" was "the show's best episode to date", and "an epic about a hero returning from a long journey, walking serenely through halls that once scared him, and performing with such skill and sincerity that his friends stared at him with love and awe." Aly Semigran of
MTV had mixed emotions. She criticized the abrupt changes of the storylines in the episode, and thought that the episode "was a noble effort" but "it didn't quite work the way it was supposed to." Raymund Flandez of
The Wall Street Journal stated that the episode "sounded just the perfect notes" and called it "the best episode yet". He continued: "The night held wonderful gems: A clear message. Witty repartee (…). Great character build up. And tailored songs that carried emotional heft." Several critics praised the development of Santana. Hankinson wrote, "My goodness, Santana. It's as if all the writers sat around a room, identified the best lines of tonight's episode and then decided to give them all to Santana. Fantastic." VanDerWerff called Santana the highlight of the episode: "The best thing about this episode is
Naya Rivera's work as Santana and the story the three writers have cooked up for her. Rivera's really come into her own this season, going from just a generic bitchy cheerleader to an actual character who has motivations and might be a better villain for the show than Sue." She added, "the storyline of Santana realizing she was in love with Brittany and, thus, is probably a lesbian has been nicely plotted and surprisingly deep. The reveal about Santana hasn't washed away her less savory qualities; indeed, it's heightened them, to a degree, as she struggles to be true to herself and still maintain her status as the hottest girl in school."
CNN Lisa Respers France considered Santana the episode's highlight, and went on to write, "She embraced her inner lesbian (sort of) and rattled off the best [lines] like 'the only straight I am is straight-up [bitch].' You gotta love that." Some critics reacted negatively to the episode. Scott Pierce of
The Salt Lake Tribune felt that the show has
jumped the shark starting from this episode. He felt that the Kurt storyline had some major flaws, and that the messages being sent have been mixed. In an interview with
ABC News, conservative media critic Dan Gainor felt that it was Ryan Murphy's "latest depraved initiative to promote his gay agenda." He added: "This is clearly Ryan Murphy's vision of what growing up should be, not most of America's. It's a high school most parents would not want to send their kids to."
Music and performances The musical performances and cover versions in the episode received generally positive commentary. Gonzalez stated that she loved the song choices, Semigran felt that it was the best performance of the night, Flandez commented that the song "floated like gossamer between Rachel and Quinn as they beautifully poured the sentiments of ugly ducklings", Gonzalez gave the performance a "B+", and commented that it wasn't her favorite group number, mostly because she felt the song "wasn't [Lady Gaga's] best effort". The mash-up of "I Feel Pretty / Unpretty" was the highest charted single featured in the episode, debuting at number twenty-two on the
Billboard Hot 100. It was the highest charting
Glee single on the
Billboard charts since "
Loser like Me", which debuted at number six on the
Billboard Hot 100 and sold over 210,000 downloads in its first week. "Somewhere Only We Know" peaked at number forty-two on the
Billboard Hot 100 charts, and it sold over 75,000 copies within its first week. The mash-up peaked at number thirty-seven, It was followed by "Born This Way" and "Somewhere Only We Know", which debuted at number thirty-one and fifty-two on the charts, respectively. ==References==