 TV Guide's Matt Roush wrote that "Audition" was "far from [his] favorite episode", disliking the "cruelty and dirty tricks" employed by the characters, though he commented that "the moments that soar remind us why this is a genuine pop-culture phenom". James Poniewozik of Time called it a "solid" episode, one which was "neither awful nor amazing", but set up promising storylines for the season ahead. He felt there were no stand out musical performances, but commented, "it gave the season some emotional grounding [...] It showed us a Glee that's not working double-time to give us everything we want all at once, and that's pretty much what I want from it." John Doyle of The Globe and Mail wrote that, with "Audition", Glee had become formulaic, and asserted that "Glee fanatics won't be disappointed. The rest of us are."
