viewers from the previous week to 2.046 million viewers. It received a 1.3 rating/2% share in the Nielsen ratings and a 1.0 rating/3% share in the 18-49 demographic, up a tenth of a point from the previous week's episode. The episode received critical acclaim. Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club was enthusiastic about the episode, stating that the episode's jokes and humor were solid throughout. He was pleased that the relationship between Leela and Fry was "finally" addressed, also feeling that up until this episode, "[t]he writing on Leela hasn't been as solid this season". Praising the episode's full use of science fiction and the smart structure of the episode, concluding: "It feels like we're back in the sweet spot here, mixing high and low comedy with sharp ideas, and a surprisingly uncynical sincerity. Everything old is new again, I guess, and that's a very good thing." Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 7.5 out of 10, citing it as another example of Futurama's "smart takes" on time travel. He felt that "it showed that there's still a lot of thought going into plotting out these time trips", although he also stated that the episode did not have enough laughs. Later in a list of the 25 best Futurama episodes, IGN named the episode fourth best in 2019. Merrill Bar of Film School Rejects praised the episode, describing it as "[e]very joke hits, every line was sweet, every emotion is true, every visual was eye popping, this episode is Futurama at its finest. If there is any complaint, it's that it took this long for the show to regain this level of quality." He concluded that "[t]his combined with last week's episode has restored my full confidence in the production team". Sean Gandert of Paste rated the episode a 9.4 out of 10, writing: "'Late' was definitely the best episode of the season so far, and ranks with the best the show's ever done. Nearly every episode of this season has been better than the last, and it looks like it's finally reached the peaks it's hit in the past. As of now, I think any doubt about the Futurama's reboot should be pretty damn well silenced." Series creator Matt Groening considers this episode his favorite episode of the season. On his Facebook account, Maurice LaMarche commented that he found this episode "[h]ilarious, touching, meaningful, philosophical, even metaphysical".