New Year's Eve (Louie)

In its original American broadcast, "New Year's Eve" was seen by an estimated 0.43 million household viewers with a 0.2 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.^[2] This was a 21% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 0.54 million viewers with a 0.3 in the 18-49 demographics.^[3]

"New Year's Eve" received critical acclaim. Eric Goldman of IGN gave the episode an "amazing" 9 out of 10 and wrote, "There were some interesting echoes in this episode of last season's 'Duckling' episode, with both involving, well, ducks and also Louie having a poignant experience in a foreign country. No, 'New Year's Eve' didn't reach the amazing heights of the truly incredible 'Duckling', but it still was a nice, sweet story in and of itself, with Louis C.K. giving a very good performance, showing the different moods he was going through."^[4]

Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote, "It's a gloriously cinematic, enigmatic close to an another spectacular season of Louie that tackled love and loss, ambition and determination with honesty, humor and an exquisite sense of pathos that somehow never devolved into sentimentality. By this point we as an audience trust Louis C.K. completely and will follow him anywhere his muse leads, even if it's the mountains of Beijing."^[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "Knowing how the rest of the season went, we can assume that Louie will be back to his old miserable self within days (if not hours) of his return to America, but it's a lovely way to conclude his journey for the season."^[6] James Poniewozik of Time wrote, "Some sitcoms have ideas behind them. Some wind up episodes with little lessons or observations about life. But it's a rare sitcom that has a philosophy — that sets itself up, not as a source of answers, but as an investigation into the question of how to live. It's a rarer sitcom still that can pull that off without seeming ridiculous or full of crap, and while still being funny. Louie is that sitcom, and last night's season finale, 'New Year's Eve,' encapsulated the hilarious, surreal, openhearted ways this season has pursued that quest."^[7]

Paste gave the episode an 8 out of 10 and wrote, "It's intentionally fragmented and disparate, filled with experiments, some successful and others disappointing. I'm sure almost everyone has felt that way, even if their preferences were different from my own. So while I'd prefer that the season's finale were another in a series of great episodes, that it isn't seems more fitting, since this is more what the show's about."^[8] Neal Lynch of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.3 star out of 5 rating and wrote, "Would I have seen THIS as the season finale? No. Not the sendoff I was hoping for, but like I've peppered throughout this review... it's fitting. We couldn't end with Louie's moral victory last week; that would have been the expectation. Instead, we float away from him as he gets cozy with some random Chinese family on the outskirts of Beijing. A happy moment wrapped in a very sad existence."^[9]

For the episode, Louis C.K. was nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.^[10] He would lose to Modern Family for the episode "Arrested".^[11]

• "New Year's Eve" at IMDb