Television critics reacted mostly mixed to "Excellence in Broadcasting", calling the storyline "funny," but "toothless." In a simultaneous review of the episodes of "The Simpsons" and "The Cleveland Show" that preceded the show, and the broadcast of "American Dad!" that followed it, "The A.V. Club" reviewer Rowan Kaiser noted, "most of the episode was spent justifying its existence as a Rush Limbaugh episode of Family Guy," and that the episode "failed to do that." In the conclusion of his review Kaiser praised "Family Guy" for its past political humor, but ultimately rated it as a D, the second worst rating, behind "The Simpsons" episode "Loan-a Lisa" and the "American Dad!" episode "100 A.D.", beating only "The Cleveland Show"'s F-grade episode "Cleveland Live!". In a slightly more positive review, Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised Limbaugh's appearance in the episode, commenting Limbaugh "certainly deserves credit for his willingness to participate and lend his own voice." Hughes went on to comment positively on the episode's debut of the high-definition opening sequence, and its introduction of Joyce Kinney as a replacement for news anchor Diane Simmons, who was killed off in "And Then There Were Fewer." Adam Markovitz of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, "The show definitely skewered Brian’s hardcore conservative conversion, but overall it seemed like a pretty fair fight."