Mrs. Brown&♯39;s Boys became a runaway success upon its initial broadcast. Every episode aired won its timeslot for RTÉ, with an average viewership of 753,500 in January, 2011. One episode&♯39;s rating beat that of RTÉ&♯39;s own ratings giant The Late Late Show, with 856,000 viewers tuning in to watch. However, critics disliked the show. "The whole thing is entirely predicated on viewers finding a man dressed as a foul-mouthed elderly woman intrinsically funny," noted Bernice Harrison in the Irish Times. "If you do, you’re away in a hack (and the viewing figures are astronomical), but if you don’t, and you think that died out with Les Dawson and Dick Emery, then it’s a long half-hour." The Irish Independent said that Mrs Brown&♯39;s Boys was the type of TV programme that "that makes you vaguely embarrassed to be Irish". The Daily Telegraph&♯39;s Sam Richards noted that show&♯39;s comedy has a "rudimentary nature", consisting of "an old-fashioned blend of silly voices and slapstick, played out in front of a live studio audience who collapse into giggles at the mere mention of the word “willy”.
