Glee: Home

"Home" is the sixteenth episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on April 27, 2010. It was directed by Paris Barclay and written by series creator Brad Falchuk. "Home" sees new cheerleader Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) deal with body image issues, while Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) sets his dad and Finn Hudson's mom together, in an attempt to get closer to Finn (Cory Monteith), and club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) is reunited with his friend April Rhodes (Kristin Chenoweth). Chenoweth first appeared in Glee in the episode "The Rhodes Not Taken". She enjoyed the role of April so much that she agreed to return for "Home", and has expressed an interest in reappearing in the future. The episode features cover versions of five songs, all of which were released as singles, available for digital download, and four of which are included on the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 3 – Showstoppers. "Home" was watched by 12.18 million American viewers and received mixed reviews from critics. Both Gerrick D. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times and Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly recommended that Chenoweth receive an Emmy nomination for her performance, and Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald opined that the episode itself should be submitted for Emmy consideration. Jean Bentley of MTV felt that Chenoweth was overused in the episode, however, and criticized the songs performed as being unrecognizable to younger viewers. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club felt that the episode was poorly balanced, and Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle deemed "Home" the weakest episode of Glee thus far.