"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.