Rumours (Glee)

"Rumours" was first broadcast on May 3, 2011 in the United States on Fox. It garnered a 3.7/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and received 8.85 million American viewers during its initial airing.[13] It was the third most-watched scripted show of the week among adults aged 18–49.[14] The total viewership and ratings for this episode were slightly up from those of the previous episode, "Born This Way", which was watched by 8.62 million American viewers and acquired a 3.4/11 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic upon first airing.[15]

The episode's Canadian broadcast, also on May 3, 2011, drew 1.49 million viewers and was the eighteenth most-watched program of the week.[16] It dropped three places from the previous episode, which attained 82,000 more viewers.[17] In Australia, "Rumours" was watched by 959,000 viewers, which made Glee the twelfth most-watched show of the night.[18] The episode was the thirty-second most-watched program of the week, but ranked fifth in the 16–39 demographic.[19] Viewership again increased from "Born This Way", which drew 805,000 viewers and ranked fourteenth on the night of broadcast.[20] In the UK, the episode was watched by 2.50 million viewers—2.07 million on E4, and 432,000 on E4+1. It was the most-watched show on E4 and E4+1 for the week, and the second most-watched on cable.[21] Here, viewership registered a slight decline on the previous episode, which attained 20,000 more viewers and ranked first on cable.[22]

"Rumours" was met with mixed to favorable reviews from the critics, though many of the latter listed significant caveats. Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the episode had its moments that made lovin' Glee fun".[1] MTV's Aly Semigran said "It wasn't a perfect episode, but it was certainly an improvement over the last few".[23] Lisa Respers France of CNN "had a whole ball of tissue" in her hand by the time the cast sang the "Don't Stop" finale, and concluded, "Well played, Glee."[24]

Brittany's (Morris, pictured) "Fondue for Two" segment was deemed an episode highlight

Time's James Poniewozik said "while 'Rumours' had its flaws ... the structure allowed the show to serve the stories, rather than feeling like the stories were there to service the songs", and particularly praised how "the songs were integrated into the drama".[25] Semigran and Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone concurred with the latter point, and Futterman wrote that "despite a forced theme premise, the songs of Rumours fit the New Directions' drama in an organic way."[2][23] The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon called the episode's focus on the Fleetwood Mac songs "a refreshing change of pace".[26] Robert Canning of IGN liked the album concept, but felt it "didn't fully deliver". He gave "Rumours" a "good" rating of 7 out of 10, and wrote, "What made the episode at least mildly entertaining were the comedy bits. Brittany's 'Fondue For Two' segments were fantastic".[27] Most other reviewers were similarly smitten with the "Fondue for Two" segments, including the aforementioned Reiter, Poniewozik, Semigran, and Respers France.

Futterman praised the return of Chenoweth's character April Rhodes, and The Wall Street Journal's Raymund Flandez said that she "brings such lightness, humor and zaniness that's endearingly button-nose cute".[2][11] Fallon wrote, "Chenoweth's every sly smirk, eyebrow tick, and note sung—well, that was my week's highlight."[26] Reiter was unenthusiastic: she acknowledged "Chenoweth's amazing pipes", but added "her character, which was thin to start with, has kind of worn out its welcome".[1] The subplot of Will thinking about going to Broadway with April was roundly criticized: both Meghan Brown of The Atlantic and Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle said there was no tension at all because the viewer knows that he will stay.[26][28] The A.V. Club's Zack Handlen called the entire scenario "ludicrous", made even more so by the highly compressed time frame, and their dress rehearsal "bizarre", criticisms echoed by Brown.[26][29]

Sue's scenes were generally not well-liked. Although Canning wrote that the newspaper "delivered on the laughs", Entertainment Weekly's Sandra Gonzalez characterized the newspaper subplot was "neither important nor substantive" and was unimpressed with the "random, frightening costume changes", and Reiter said Sue's storyline was one that "felt as tired as secondhand news".[1][27][30] Poniewozik said that the episode "recognized that she is not really a character but a human obstacle", which he suggested was "a better way for the show to use her".[25]

According to Hankinson, "One of the best parts of the episode centered around Brittany and Santana, but I think all the principals—Artie, Finn, Rachel, and Quinn too—did a great job portraying the tension and distrust pervading the team."[28] Anthony Benigno of The Faster Times felt the show was "absurdly preachy" on the matter of rumors, though he said the episode was "decent".[31] The scene in the motel room with Sam, Rachel, Finn and Sam's brother and sister was called "arguably the most affecting scene of the entire episode" by Handlen, and Poniewozik wrote that "Chord Overstreet sold Sam's feeling of loss".[25][26] Canning felt otherwise: "It may have had a better impact if we cared more about Sam or if Chord Overstreet had delivered more believable tears, but as things were, it was just some ordinary, blah drama."[27]

The developments in the relationship between Brittany and Santana received considerable attention. John Kubicek of BuddyTV thought the plot was pointless, and said it "boiled down to: I'm not ready to come out. I'm ready. Now I'm not again." He added, "If you're going to have Santana question herself, at least show it and don't have it all happen off screen."[32] Both Hankinson and Respers France were impressed by the acting of both Morris and Rivera. Hankinson wrote, "It feels like their relationship is developing organically", while Respers France commended Morris for Brittany's breakup scene with Artie, and Rivera for far surpassing her expectations.[24][28]

Reviewers hailed Artie's (McHale, pictured) performance of "Never Going Back Again"

All of the musical numbers were generally praised, though not every number was received with the same enthusiasm. Benigno was disappointed that there was "nothing special" in any of the arrangements, but Futterman saw the performances from a different perspective: "They're not as visually stunning, but they're vocally some of the more impressive renditions Glee has done all season."[2][31] She said of the "Dreams" rendition by Chenoweth with Morrison, "The harmonies and bare-bones arrangement make for one of Glee's most faithful covers yet."[2] Most critics welcomed the Chenoweth version. Gonzalez gave the song a "B+" and Brett Berk of Vanity Fair awarded it four stars of five; both praised Chenoweth but criticized Morrison.[30][33] Semigran and Kubicek simply gave kudos to Chenoweth alone.[23][32] Benigno wondered why the pair were trying to imitate Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham when he felt they were better singers than those two, and gave the song a "B".[31]

Hankinson wrote, "I enjoyed all the smaller numbers tonight because I felt like the kids really sold the performances and infused some nice emotional context."[28] Of these, "Never Going Back Again" received the most consistent approval. Futterman said it was "better than Artie's post-Tina 'Stronger'", and Kubicek declared it "proof that he's quite good at hitting emotional notes", while Semigran said she was "blown away".[2][23][32] Both Gonzalez and Benigno gave it an "A−", while Berk gave it all five stars. Berk also gave five stars to "Songbird", which Gonzalez again gave an "A−", while Benigno was slightly less generous with a "B+".[30][31][33] Futterman described Santana's vocals as "raw and restrained", and called her rendition of the song a "heartbreaking performance", but while Semigran called it "sweet enough", she also wrote "Rivera's voice doesn't pack quite the punch the tune requires".[2][23] Kubicek, however, said it was "easily the best song from the episode".[32]

The first full-length vocal duet between Quinn (Agron, left) and Finn (Monteith, right) is featured in this episode, and drew praise from many reviewers

Many reviewers appreciated the pointed "I Don't Want to Know" performance. Kubicek called it "quite entertaining", Gonzalez felt the "angry singing" was "hot" and gave it an "A−", the same grade as Benigno, who said the song had "a bit more oomph than the original", though he added that Finn "sings with the subtlety of an artillery barrage" and he was happy with Quinn's "strong foundation in the back".[30][31][32] Futterman wrote that it was "better than Quinn and Sam's 'Lucky'", but Berk gave the song only two stars out of five, the same grade he gave to "Go Your Own Way".[2][33] Although both Kubicek and Gonzalez criticized Rachel's motivations in singing the song, the latter still gave it an "A" and noted "if I had to listen to someone cover this song, it'd be her".[30][32] Semigran called it "one of Lea Michele's strongest outings all season", while Benigno said "this is one of those rare times her balls-to-the-walls delivery works with the arrangement instead of distracting from it" and gave it an "A".[23][31] Hankinson was "particularly fond" of the song, and added that it had "great energy".[28]

The group finale of "Don't Stop" received good grades—"A" from Gonzales and "B+" from Benigno, and four of five stars from Berk.[30][31][33] Kubicek found a bright spot in that Sam got to sing a solo.[32] The performance received encomiums such as "pretty great" from Semigran and "inspired" from Futterman.[2][23] The portion of an original song for the April Rhodes musical sung by April and Will, "Nice to Meet You, Have I Slept with You?", received little commentary, though Flandez made specific mention of "her operatic range, and their charismatic stage presence".[11]

Five of the six Rumours cover versions debuted on the Billboard Hot 100: "Go Your Own Way" debuted at number forty-five, "Songbird" at number sixty-eight, "Don't Stop" at number seventy-nine, "Never Going Back Again" at number eighty-one, and "Dreams" at number ninety-two.[34][35] The sixth, "I Don't Want to Know", did not chart. The first four Glee songs on the Hot 100 also charted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100: "Go Your Own Way" debuted at number thirty-one, "Don't Stop" at number sixty-five, "Songbird" at number seventy, and "Never Going Back Again" at number eighty.[36] The peak positions attained by "Songbird" and "Go Your Own Way" were fifty-four and thirty, in the UK and Australia respectively.[37][38] Out of the six songs from Rumours that were featured in the episode, four were also featured on the eighth soundtrack album of the series, Glee: The Music, Volume 6: "Songbird", "Don't Stop", "Go Your Own Way", and "Dreams".[39]

The episode also sparked renewed interest in Fleetwood Mac and its most commercially successful album, and Rumours reentered the Billboard 200 chart at number eleven, the same week that Nicks' new solo album In Your Dreams debuted at number six. The two recordings sold a little less than 30,000 and 52,000 units, respectively. Music downloads accounted for ninety-one percent of the Rumours sales. The spike in sales for Rumours represented an uptick of 1,951%, and it had the highest US chart entry by a previously issued album since The Rolling Stones' reissue of Exile on Main St. entered the chart at number two on June 5, 2010.[40] In Australia, the interest had an even more profound effect: five days after the episode aired, the Rumours album entered the Australian charts at number two, and was at number three the following week. Most sales came from digital downloads. In all, the album was in the top forty for nine consecutive weeks.[19][41] Rumours received its 13× Platinum certification in Australia at the end of May 2011.[42]