Reception
The episode averaged 9.7 million viewers and a 4.7 overnight Nielsen rating and a 12 percent audience share. The episode had the highest demo ratings of any Simpsons episode since "The Wife Aquatic", which aired January 7, 2007. However, the ratings were down 13% from last season's premiere, "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", which had a 5.3 Nielsen rating, but did better than the eighteenth season's average of 4.1. Combined with the King of the Hill episode "Suite Smells of Excess", the show finished second in the 8 PM hour, trailing NBC's Sunday Night Football, but achieving higher ratings than the second hour of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and CBS's Power of Ten. For the overall Sunday night primetime averages, FOX finished third behind NBC and CBS, with an average 10.5 million viewers and a 4.9 rating.
Brian Tallerico of UGO gave the episode a mixed review (a C), expressing disappointment after the well received The Simpsons Movie. He felt the writers went "right back to their old clichés and sadly repetitive jokes". He did praise the altered opening sequence. Robert Canning of IGN also gave the episode 5/10, praising the opening sequence but found most of the episode mediocre, especially Stephen Colbert's appearance. Nonetheless, "even a mediocre episode will have a few comic gems hidden inside. The time spent in Chicago is quite enjoyable, including a great Ferris Bueller sight gag, and life coach Colby delivers a zinger of a line comparing Homer's attitude to that of the United States of America." Richard Keller of TV Squad praised the episode, saying "after watching so many recent ones where Homer seemed like a barely functioning mental patient, I wasn't used to a Homer that was actually fairly normal." Al Jean, the current executive producer of The Simpsons, has called the episode one of his personal favorites. Prefix Mag's Andrew Martin named Lionel Richie his ninth favorite musical guest on The Simpsons out of a list of ten.
Read more about this topic: He Loves To Fly And He D'ohs
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