Reception
"Branch Wars" received a 5.0/7 in the Nielsen ratings, meaning that five percent of households were tuned in at any given moment and seven percent of all televisions in use at the time were tuned in to the program. The episode was watched by 8.39 million viewers and achieved a 4.5/11 in the ages 18–49 demographic. Mindy Kaling's writing in the episode was nominated for "Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series" in the 2008 NAACP Image Awards.
Oscar Dahl, a senior writer for BuddyTV, gave the episode a favorable review and stated that "Tonight's Office was possibly the funniest of the season." Christine Fenno of Entertainment Weekly stated that "... 'Branch Wars', penned by Mindy Kaling, didn't measure up to the brilliance of last week's episode ('Local Ad') but served up plenty of laughs." Travis Fickett of IGN stated that "This episode feels like it comes in two halves, one that works and one that doesn't so much " when referring to the trip to Utica, and "The Finer Things Club", respectively, but later pointed out that "Despite being a somewhat bumpy ride, the episode has a fair number of big laughs." Fickett particularly enjoyed Jim's character in the episode, and his actions and reactions to the situation that he became involved in.
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