Reception
"Damien" received a 6.4 Nielsen rating, a record high for the show until it was broken two weeks later by the episode "Mecha-Streisand" (which received a 6.9 rating, translating to 5.4 viewers in 3.2 million households). It was the highest rated cable program the week it aired, with viewership among 18–49 year olds being higher than the number of households. The network averages viewer ratings of 276,000 households during prime time and, prior to South Park, the channel's highest rating was from the second season premiere of Absolutely Fabulous, was which was seen by 1.24 million households.
Parker said following the tremendous success of "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo", much of the direct feedback he received for "Damien" was negative. Parker described it as the "first sort of backlash" he had experienced with South Park, with fans claiming the show as losing its edge and that Parker and Stone had "sold out". Parker said, "We kept hearing that word so much. We were like, 'What does that mean, sold out? What did we get and what did we do?' We just kept doing what we thought was funny, we didn't go start making commercials or anything. But everybody was saying we sold out." Nevertheless, the episode received generally positive reviews, and has been described as one of South Park's "classic episodes".
Rolling Stone contributor Doug Pratt called it a "high point" of the first season. Kinney Littlefield of The Orange County Register said of the episode, "All this proves once again that animated series are great platforms for hot topics that live action shows don't dare grab head on. South Park's allegory of good and evil is more apt and knowing than anything seen on 'Christy' or 'Touched by an Angel'. Funnier too." However, Littlefield also said some of the show's graphic dialogue, like the phrase "poop on a stick", was growing "pretty darn redundant". Gary Budzak of The Columbus Dispatch described the "Damien" episode as perhaps "the most outrageous yet". Virginia Rohan of The Record praised the episode, saying, "The episode is funny, and ultimately, good does conquer evil, albeit for all the wrong reasons." Chicago Sun-Times writer Lon Grahnke gave the episode three stars and called it simultaneously strange and funny. Eric Mink of the New York Daily News called the episode "awfully funny" and praised its satirical element, although he warned it was potentially very offensive to some viewers: "A scene in which the kids offer profane between-rounds encouragement to Jesus could make even thick-skinned viewers wince a bit." Likewise, Star-Ledger reporter Matt Zoller Seitz said, "Tonight's episode is crazy, vulgar and borderline blasphemous; it is also, if you're in the right frame of mind, paralyzingly funny."
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