Cartman receives Ants in the Pants, an actual children's tabletop game, as a birthday present. Stone described Ants in the Pants as "the lamest game ever", which is why Cartman responds so negatively to the gift in the episode. Reception "Damien" received a 6.4 Nielsen rating, a record high for the show until it was broken two weeks later by the episode "Mecha-Streisand" (which received a 6.9 rating, translating to 5.4 million viewers in 3.2 million households). It was the highest rated cable program the week it aired, with viewership among 18- to 49-year-olds being higher than the number of households. The network averages viewer ratings of 276,000 households during prime time and, prior to South Park, the channel's highest rating was from the second-season premiere of Absolutely Fabulous, which was seen by 1.24 million households. Parker said following the tremendous success of "Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo", much of the direct feedback he received for "Damien" was negative. Parker described it as the "first sort of backlash" he had experienced with South Park, with fans claiming the show was losing its edge and that Parker and Stone had "sold out". Parker said, "We kept hearing that word so much. We were like, 'What does that mean, sold out? What did we get and what did we do?' We just kept doing what we thought was funny, we didn't go start making commercials or anything. But everybody was saying we sold out." Nevertheless, the episode received generally positive reviews, and has been described as one of South Park "classic episodes". Rolling Stone contributor Doug Pratt called it a "high point" of the first season. Kinney Littlefield of the Orange County Register said of the episode, "All this proves once again that animated series are great platforms for hot topics that live action shows don't dare grab head on. South Park allegory of good and evil is more apt and knowing than anything seen on 'Christy or 'Touched by an Angel. Funnier too." However, Littlefield also said some of the show's graphic dialogue, like the phrase "poop on a stick", was growing "pretty darn redundant". Gary Budzak of The Columbus Dispatch described the "Damien" episode as perhaps "the most outrageous yet". Virginia Rohan of The Record praised the episode, saying, "The episode is funny, and ultimately, good does conquer evil, albeit for all the wrong reasons." Chicago Sun-Times writer Lon Grahnke