"S.R. 819" first aired in the United States on January 17, 1999. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.1, meaning that roughly 9.1 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 15.7 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on May 2, 1999, and received 690,000 viewers, making it the second most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "He has 24 hours to solve his own murder... or die." The episode was nominated for three 2000 Emmy Awards by the Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore). The episode was later included on "The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization", a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien Colonist's plans to take over the earth.