Glee: Audition

"Audition" is the second season premiere and twenty-third episode overall of the American television series Glee. The episode was written by Ian Brennan, directed by Brad Falchuk, and premiered on the Fox network on September 21, 2010. In "Audition", the glee club members attempt to attract new recruits, including foreign exchange student Sunshine Corazon (Charice) and transfer student Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet). A new football coach, Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), arrives at McKinley High, and school blogger Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman) provides updates on the glee club's summer break. The episode features eight musical and dance performances, five of which were released as singles, available for download. Musical performances attracted mixed reviews from critics. Lea Michele's rendition of "What I Did for Love" from A Chorus Line was described by Robert Bianco of USA Today as putting "every amateur musical performance on every TV talent show this year to shame", though both Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times and Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club found it incongruous in context. Charice's performances were well received by American and Filipino critics, and Alicia Keys expressed approval of the Glee cast cover of "Empire State of Mind". "Audition" was watched by 12.45 million American viewers, and attained Glee's series high Nielsen rating in the 18–34 demographic. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, and Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack and the New York Post's Jarett Wieselman both stated that it had assuaged their fears of the show declining in quality in its second season. Brett Berk of Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman both felt the show had returned to form following an increasingly disappointing first season. Several critics highlighted racial issues with the episode: Fred Topel of Hollywood News described a scene involving Sunshine as "downright racist", and Brittany Drye of The Stir also questioned the pairing of Asian characters Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.) and Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz).