Critical The Loud House has received positive reviews, specifically for its animation, voice acting, characterization, and the heartwarming themes of each episode. Emily Ashby of
Common Sense Media praised the show's voice cast and thematic messages, writing that "kids will come to
The Loud House for the laughs, but they'll return for the ensemble cast and the surprisingly heartwarming themes that dominate every story." Kevin Johnson of
The A.V. Club gave the series a B+, noting that "the female characters are defined by their traits, but never judged for them." In the show's later years, it received heavy criticism for its long-running status and growing amount of spin-offs and extended media, with critics and audiences alleging the series was experiencing a
decline in quality. Ryan Lewis of
CBR.com wrote that "Nickelodeon tried too hard to match
SpongeBob's influence and immediately took to creating spin-offs, a Netflix movie, and countless merchandise. These efforts may have been justified had
The Loud House not been written with one-note stock characters making up its main cast."
The Loud House has developed a fanbase among adults since its debut. In a 2017 study by the
University of Turku centered on the formation of adult fandoms around animated series aimed at children and adolescents, the author, Joonas Välimäki, examined the series' adult fanbase through its dedicated subreddit on
Reddit, r/theloudhouse. Välimäki found that discussions within the subreddit tend to involve the series' episodes and fan content and conducted a survey with six participants, who were all men around the age of 21. The survey revealed that the participants found out about the series through commericials on Nickelodeon and animated-related discourse on the internet.
LGBT representation As with
other animated series made in the late 2010s and 2020s,
The Loud House has been noted for its strong implementation of
LGBT themes, including same-sex relationships and people of color. The characters of
Howard and Harold McBride have received praise for being a positive representation of an
interracial gay married couple. They are the first married gay couple to be featured in a Nicktoon. Laura Bradley of
Vanity Fair stated that
The Loud House "handles the topic [of same-sex marriage] in exactly the right way...this kind of casual representation in children's programming is a milestone." De Elizabeth of
Teen Vogue wrote, "The best part is that the show doesn't treat these characters any differently, or even introduce them with a heavy asterisk about their marital status."
Time reported that "people are thrilled about Nickelodeon's decision" to include a gay couple. Some conservative groups, by contrast, have criticized the introduction of the characters. The
One Million Moms division of the
American Family Association objected to scenes featuring the McBride parents and unsuccessfully pushed for the episode in which they first appeared to be edited to exclude the couple, saying that "Nickelodeon should stick to entertaining instead of pushing an agenda." The
Kenya Film Classification Board also called for the suspension of the series on pay television service
DStv, saying that the animated series "promotes the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender agenda."
Ratings The Loud House became the number-one children's animated series on television within its first month on the air. As of June 2016, it was Nickelodeon's highest-rated program, beating
SpongeBob SquarePants with an average
Nielsen rating of 4.9 among the 2–11
demographic at the time.
The Los Angeles Times cited
The Loud House as a major factor in maintaining Nickelodeon's position as the highest-rated children's network in summer 2016. During the show's fourth week of premieres,
Cyma Zarghami announced that it was continuing to draw more viewers than any other program on the channel. The show's highest-rated episode, with 2.28 million viewers upon its premiere, is "
Two Boys and a Baby". This was the first episode to air after it was announced that Howard and Harold McBride would be debuting on the program. The first episode of
The Loud House shown at
prime time, "
11 Louds a Leapin'", was the seventh most-viewed telecast across all U.S. households on November 25, 2016.
Awards and nominations The Loud Houses portrayal of
interracial gay married couple Howard and Harold McBride led the series to be nominated for
Outstanding Individual Episode at the
28th GLAAD Media Awards and for Outstanding Kids & Family Programming at the
29th,
31st,
32nd and
35th GLAAD Media Awards. The series has also been nominated for
Favorite Cartoon at the
Kids' Choice Awards every year since
2017. ==Notes==