Ratings and viewership

"Furt" was first broadcast on November 23, 2010, in the United States on Fox. It was watched by 10.41 million American viewers during its initial airing—Glee's lowest viewership for the second season to that point—and was the fifteenth-most-watched show of the week across all channels. It garnered a 4.0/12 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, which made it the highest-rated show in its timeslot, and the third-highest-rated scripted show of the week amongst adults aged 18–49.^[12][13] The total viewership and ratings for this episode were down significantly from those of the previous episode, "The Substitute", which was watched by 11.70 million American viewers and acquired a 5.0/14 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic upon first airing on November 16, 2010.^[14]

The episode's Canadian broadcast, also on November 23, 2010, attained 2.10 million viewers, which placed Glee ninth in the weekly program rankings.^[15] Viewership declined slightly from "The Substitute", which was watched by 2.29 million, but also ranked ninth.^[16] "Furt" aired in Australia on November 29, 2010, where it drew 1.33 million viewers, and was the second-most-watched show of the night and third of the week.^[17] Here, viewership increased from "The Substitute", which attained 1.06 million viewers and ranked seventh for the night and nineteenth for the week.^[18] David Dale noted in The Sydney Morning Herald that Glee faced weaker competition than usual, as Network Ten was "the only commercial network showing new episodes of its top shows".^[17] In the UK, the episode aired on February 28, 2011, and was watched by 2.43 million viewers—2.03 million on E4, and 406,000 on E4+1—which made it the most-watched show on both channels and the second-most-watched show on cable for the week.^[19][20] Here again, viewership was down from the previous episode, which drew 2.55 million viewers and was the most-watched show across all cable channels.^[21]

Critical reception

"Furt" received a generally positive reception from critics, though there were some dissenting viewpoints. Meghan Brown of The Atlantic wrote that the episode "worked beautifully".^[22] The A.V. Club's Emily VanDerWerff called it a "largely terrific episode of television", and gave it a "B+".^[23] Lisa Respers France of CNN was reminded of "how well this show marries plot with music",^[24] and Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman concluded, "The focus on the show's best characters, Kurt and Sue, kept the show balanced between heart and bite—just the way we like our Glee".^[25] IGN's Robert Canning was less enthusiastic; he called it an "unfocused jumble of an episode" and gave it a score of 7 out of 10.^[26] The BuddyTV reviewers were split, with Jen Harper quite happy, and John Kubicek who wrote that he hated the entire episode.^[27][28]

Most reviews heaped praise on the guest appearance of Carol Burnett, who played Sue's Nazi-hunting absentee mother Doris. Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle said Burnett was a "well-used guest star", and he "loved every minute she was on screen."^[29] Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times asked "who could not be charmed" by Burnett,^[30] and the Wall Street Journal's Raymund Flandez lauded the "tour-de-force panache and sharp-tongued deadpan by Carol Burnett", and called her appearance the "best guest casting this season".^[31]

The marriage of Burt Hummel and Carole Hudson received generally good marks. VanDerWerff wrote, "it's rare that an episode of television can make a hurried wedding between two middle-aged people who are rarely on the show into something so well-conceived and thrillingly moving."^[23] Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times noted, "Every character in that family rings emotionally true."^[32] Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack was pleased with the performances of Mike O'Malley as Burt and Romy Rosemont as Carole; he also welcomed the episode's increased focus on Finn, and praised Cory Monteith as a "good, natural actor".^[33] Kevin Fallon of The Atlantic was unhappy with both weddings, and Canning said they "took up most of this episode, and unfortunately neither were entirely successful".^[22][26] Several reviewers noted the "homage" of the wedding procession dance, including Hankinson, Anthony Benigno of the Daily News;^[29][34] the Wall Street Journal invited readers to compare the original viral "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" YouTube video and the subsequent dancing procession from the "Niagara" episode of The Office with Glee's version in "Furt",^[35] while Stack made his own comparison, and said Glee's was "just about as good" as the original, and "a blast to watch".^[33]

Sue Sylvester's marriage to herself was lambasted by many critics, including Vanity Fair's Brett Berk, who said it "was about as compelling as a hair lollipop".^[36] Patrick Burns of The Atlantic was also unimpressed, especially "because the main plot points of this episode are otherwise so effective"; his colleague Fallon was brief and to the point: "Blergh."^[22]

There was disagreement on the bullying storyline. Some critics, including Canning and Hankinson, praised it,^[26][29] while others had reservations, such as Brown, who characterized it as "heavy-handed", and Fallon, who considered it "well-acted" but "far too stagnant".^[22] The Sam and Quinn storyline was panned by VanDerWerff, who wrote "the series has wasted whatever chemistry the two had in 'Duets' on scenes where Sam talks about how he wants to be the most popular kid in school", and by Kubicek, who criticized the lack of consistency in Sam's characterization.^[23][28]

Music and performances

The musical performances and cover versions in the episode attracted generally positive reviews, though a few reviewers noted that the program had been on for twenty-three minutes before the first song appeared. While Fallon said it was an "interminable wait" for the first musical number, "Ohio",^[22] and Reiter cited the delay as flaw,^[32] James Poniewozik of Time thought it a "credit to the episode" that he had not noticed the absence of music to that point.^[37] Flandez and Futterman commented favorably on all the musical numbers,^[25][31] though Canning felt the songs were a "disappointing aspect of this episode", and none were "exceptionally memorable".^[26]

The duet of Burnett and Lynch on "Ohio" was well received. Jean Bentley of AOL TV praised it as "simply magnificent",^[38] Zap2it's Hanh Nguyen called it a "fantastic job"^[39] and Flandez said it was "lovely" and that "the bickering interlude was a delight."^[31] Others tempered their praise: Berk gave it three of five stars and noted the "bland staging",^[36] and Benigno graded it a "C" and called it "boring", though he said "their voices work well" together;^[34] Stack gave it a "B+" with the caveat that it was "a little too theatrical".^[33]

The dancing wedding procession and its accompanying performance of the Bruno Mars song "Marry You" were mostly praised. Stack gave it an "A" and Berk five stars out of five, and Amanda Hensel of AOL Music called it "easily one of the best performances of the season".^[33][36][40] Benigno gave it a "B" primarily because the cast didn't "do anything particularly interesting with it" vocally, but called the performance "pure joy".^[34] Flandez wrote that "two Bruno Mars songs that were brilliant in execution and touching in sentiment",^[31] and Futterman agreed: "the Bruno Mars songs gave the show two of its best performances this season".^[25] While Benigno and Stack also praised "Just the Way You Are", and both gave the song an "A",^[33][34] Harper thought Monteith's vocals as Finn "aren't the strongest" and Bentley also wished Finn had not been the soloist. Additionally, Harper criticized the failure of the show to adjust the song's pronouns from feminine to masculine when Finn was singing to Kurt, and noted that Gwyneth Paltrow had changed pronouns while singing Cee Lo Green's "Forget You" the week before.^[27][38] Hankinson was more impressed with "Just the Way You Are", and gave it a "slight edge" over "Marry You" for the episode's "best musical number", "given the emotional context".^[29]

Matthew Morrison's performance of "Sway" received the most divergent opinions. Some reviewers mentioned how closely it resembled Michael Bublé's version: Benigno graded it "A−" and said "Matthew Morrison sounds exactly like Bublé here, which is both unbelievably impressive (Bublé's got some pipes on him), and takes a little bit away from the number (easy to write it off as an impression)" (emphasis in the original),^[34] Stack gave it a "B" and characterized it as "pretty simple, but Matthew Morrison does a mean Michael Bublé",^[33] and Bentley called it "a perfectly fine cover",^[38] though Futterman said it "can't beat Michael Bublé's take".^[25] Among those who did not compare Morrison to Bublé, Hensel called it a "beautiful solo performance",^[40] while Berk gave it two stars out of five and wrote "Shue sings it just like a real wedding singer",^[36] and Nguyen said the song felt "out of place".^[39]

Chart history

Only two of the four cover versions released as singles—the two songs by Bruno Mars—debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, and appeared on other musical charts. On the Hot 100, the show's rendition of "Marry You" debuted at number thirty-two; it was number nineteen on the Canadian Hot 100. The other song on the Hot 100 was "Just the Way You Are" at number forty, which also made number twenty-four on the Canadian Hot 100. That same week, Mars's own single of "Marry You" also debuted on these same charts, though well below the Glee cover version, at number ninety-one on the Hot 100 and number eighty-nine on the Canadian Hot 100; his single of "Just the Way You Are" was in the top five on both charts that week.^[41][42]