In its original broadcast, "Beyond Blunderdome" finished 48th in the ratings for the week of September 20–26, 1999, with a Nielsen rating of 8.0—equivalent to approximately 8.1 million viewing households. It was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, beating shows such as Futurama and King of the Hill. In comparison, the previous season premiere episode, "Lard of the Dance", drew a Nielsen rating of 7.2 points with 7.1 million households watching. The episode had a lower rating than the overall rating for the entire eleventh season, which averaged 8.2 million households. On March 12, 2002, the episode was released in the United States on a DVD collection titled The Simpsons Film Festival, along with the episodes "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" (season four), "22 Short Films About Springfield" season seven) and "A Star is Burns" (season six). On October 7, 2008, "Beyond Blunderdome" was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Scully, George Meyer, Ron Hauge, Matt Selman and Moore participated in the DVD audio commentary. The episode had an alternate ending in which Apu suggests that they sell the failed film to India, since the people of India love violent, action-packed American films. This ending was included on the eleventh season DVD set. Since airing, the episode has received generally mixed reception from critics. The day after the premiere, Mark Lorando of The Times-Picayune wrote that while it was "not the laugh riot The Simpsons have spoiled us to expect – our appetite for showbiz parodies is waning – the episode did have its moments." He further added that he especially liked "the sign posted outside the movie studio gate: 'No Artistic Integrity Beyond This Point.'" While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented on the episode, writing that "Gibson actually does a good job here, and it’s amusing to see Homer’s terrible movie ideas. This isn’t classic Simpsons, but it starts the season on a pretty good note." However, an article in Salon magazine from 2000 points to "Beyond Blunderdome" as the greatest precursor to that Homer would be more predominant as "Jerkass Homer" in the Scully era as showrunner, a Homer who "is not only dumb, but [has also become] disgusting and semi-sociopathic. This is the Homer who, in the season opener ['Beyond Blunderdome'], showed Marge's wedding