"Rumours" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the forty-first overall. The episode was written by series co-creator Ryan Murphy, directed by Tim Hunter, first aired on May 3, 2011 on Fox in the United States, and it features the return of guest star Kristin Chenoweth. In "Rumours", the glee club is swept by rumors that strain the friendships and relationships of the members, so director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) has them perform songs from Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album Rumours. The episode is a tribute to that album, and all the songs covered in the episode are from it. This generated strong interest in the album: Rumours reentered the Billboard 200 chart at number eleven the week after the show was aired in the US, and the Australian album charts at number two five days after the show was aired in that country.
The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the episode had its moments that made lovin' Glee fun", but called the Sue Sylvester subplot "tired". Many critics were impressed with how well the album's music was incorporated into the episode including Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone, who wrote "the songs of Rumours fit the New Directions' drama in an organic way." The "Fondue for Two" segments were a favorite of reviewers, and were developed from an idea by one of the show's fans.
The musical performances received mostly praise, especially "Never Going Back Again" and "Go Your Own Way". Five of the six Rumours cover versions debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, and four of these were featured on the subsequent Glee: The Music, Volume 6 soundtrack album. Upon its initial airing, the "Rumours" episode was viewed by 8.85 million American viewers and garnered a 3.7/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership and ratings for this episode was up slightly from the previous episode, "Born This Way".
Plot
Cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) revives the student newspaper The Muckraker. She wants to publish libel about the McKinley High glee club to cause conflict between the club's members and destroy it from within. Brittany's (Heather Morris) new internet talk show—"Fondue for Two"—gives the newspaper some grist when she seems to out Santana (Naya Rivera) on it. Santana berates Brittany for her ill-chosen words, and Finn (Cory Monteith) nearly comes to blows with Sam (Chord Overstreet) over another item that pairs Sam and Finn's girlfriend Quinn (Dianna Agron). Although Quinn and Sam both deny dating, Finn plans a stakeout with Rachel's help to see if it is true. Their surveillance of a shabby motel instead finds Sam and Kurt (Chris Colfer) leaving a room, after which Sam goes back inside alone.
April Rhodes (Kristin Chenoweth) visits Will to ask for his help with her new Broadway project: a one-woman show entitled CrossRhodes. He tells her about the current glee club tensions, which she likens to Fleetwood Mac when they made their Rumours album. Will and April sing "Dreams" to the club, and he assigns them to perform songs from the album, to focus them back on music.
Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) confronts Brittany: he becomes upset that Brittany cannot recognize that she is cheating on him with Santana, and calls her stupid. Brittany walks away in tears, stating that he was the only one who never called her that up until then, and he sings "Never Going Back Again". Santana further opens up to Brittany about her true feelings by singing "Songbird" to her. She agrees to go on Brittany's online talk show to let Brittany ask her to the prom, but she backs out at the last minute. Brittany later overhears Santana claim in an interview for The Muckraker that she is in love with Dave Karofsky (Max Adler), her running mate for prom king and queen.
Most of New Directions, minus Kurt and Sam, meet for coffee and speculate about the absent pair. Quinn maintains that Kurt would never cheat on his boyfriend Blaine (Darren Criss), and states that Sam is not gay. When Finn and Rachel resume their stakeout that night, they see Quinn leaving the same motel room, and Sam giving her a hug before going back inside.
The next day, the newspaper has an item about Finn and Rachel, who were spotted on their stakeout. Quinn is furious with Finn, and Finn is already mad about seeing Quinn with Sam. They confront each other, then sing a barbed version of the duet "I Don't Want to Know" as their glee club assignment. Quinn then gives an ultimatum: if Finn wants their relationship to continue, he cannot sing any more duets with Rachel. Rachel has other ideas, and later sings "Go Your Own Way" to Finn, who accompanies her on the drums. Some sharp accusations are thrown before Sam bitterly reveals that he was at the motel because his parents are unemployed and his family lives there now that their house has been foreclosed on—Kurt was bringing Sam some clothes, and Quinn was helping Sam babysit his younger brother and sister. Sam storms out. When the club discovers from Quinn that Sam has pawned his guitar, they buy it back for him and offer their support. Sam brings his siblings to a glee club rehearsal, and everyone sings "Don't Stop".
Production
The show's co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan had long "wanted to do an episode" that would be a tribute to a single album rather than to a "musical act". Glee had covered "Landslide" by Stevie Nicks several weeks earlier in the episode "Sexy"; Nicks had visited the set to watch the song being filmed, and stayed for six hours. This relationship helped them obtain the rights to cover the songs on the 1977 Fleetwood Mac studio album from which the episode is named.
The idea for Brittany's "Fondue for Two" segments in the episode came from a Glee fan. Teresa Musumeci went to the 2010 Glee Live! In Concert! show at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and she had a letter delivered to Cory Monteith that mentioned she was writing her own internet program: "More like a Youtube show called 'Fondue for Two. According to wsvn.com, "Heather Morris who plays Brittany admits the idea came from a letter", and the show later sent Musumeci an autographed copy of the script and an autographed cast picture in thanks.
Chenoweth's reappearance marks her third time on the series as April. She last appeared in the season one episode "Home". Murphy explained the reason for her return as the failure of her attempt at an all-white musical production of The Wiz. Other recurring guest stars in the episode include glee club members Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.), Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), and Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink), school bully Azimio (James Earl), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), and cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter). Additional guests include Sam's sister Stacey and brother Stevie, played by Ava Chelsea Ingram and Cody Hamilton respectively, a barista played by Cathy Doe, and a coffee shop patron played by Connie Ventress.
All six songs from Rumours covered in the episode were released as singles, available for digital download. Chenoweth and Morrison were featured on "Dreams", McHale sang "Never Going Back Again", Rivera covered "Songbird", Monteith and Agron duetted on "I Don't Want to Know", Michele sang "Go Your Own Way", and the glee club combined on "Don't Stop". The episode also included a portion of an original song, "Nice to Meet You, Have I Slept with You?"—written by Brennan and Adam Anders and sung by Chenoweth and Morrison—which was not released. "The Chain", also from Rumours, was used as backing music in the second motel stakeout scene.
Reception
Ratings "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. It was the third most-watched scripted show of the week among adults aged 18–49. 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.
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. It dropped three places from the previous episode, which attained 82,000 more viewers. In Australia, "Rumours" was watched by 959,000 viewers, which made Glee the twelfth most-watched show of the night. The episode was the thirty-second most-watched program of the week, but ranked fifth in the 16–39 demographic. Viewership again increased from "Born This Way", which drew 805,000 viewers and ranked fourteenth on the night of broadcast. 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. Here, viewership registered a slight decline on the previous episode, which attained 20,000 more viewers and ranked first on cable.
Critical response
"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". MTV Aly Semigran said "It wasn't a perfect episode, but it was certainly an improvement over the last few". 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."
Time 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". 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." The Atlantic Kevin Fallon called the episode's focus on the Fleetwood Mac songs "a refreshing change of pace". 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". 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 Raymund Flandez said that she "brings such lightness, humor and zaniness that's endearingly button-nose cute". Fallon wrote, "Chenoweth's every sly smirk, eyebrow tick, and note sung—well, that was my week's highlight." 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". 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. The A.V. Club 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.