The First Time

"The First Time" is the fifth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the forty-ninth overall. Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and directed by co-executive producer Bradley Buecker, it first aired on Fox in the United States on November 8, 2011. The episode features the preparations for performing West Side Story and the show's opening night, and the various events leading to the decisions by two of the show's student couples—Rachel (Lea Michele) and Finn (Cory Monteith), and Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss)—to begin having sex. While an advanced copy of the episode was released to several reviewers and was highly praised by them, the reviewers of the broadcast were not as generally enthusiastic. In particular, some of the plotting and resulting characterization came in for criticism. The performance of "America", however, was widely acclaimed, especially that of Santana (Naya Rivera) in the role of Anita. While the advance publicity about the "first time" events drew some pre-broadcast condemnation, many critics were enthusiastic about the fact that a gay couple was being given such a storyline. All six songs were released in five singles, available for download. Of these, "Uptown Girl", a song sung by the returning Dalton Academy Warblers, charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and also on the Canadian Hot 100. The remaining songs, all from West Side Story, did not chart. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 6.91 million American viewers, the lowest of the season, and garnered a 3.1/10 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership for this episode was down somewhat from the previous episode, "Pot o' Gold", though ratings were fractionally higher. Plot Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) has taken charge of directing the school musical, West Side Story, and he tells the two leads—Rachel (Lea Michele), playing Maria, and Blaine (Darren Criss), playing Tony—that they are not conveying enough emotion in their rendition of "Tonight". He questions whether they can convincingly portray the roles if they are still virgins. Later, his co-director Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) confesses to him that she is attracted to football recruiter Cooter Menkins (Eric Bruskotter), who is at McKinley to scout potential players for Ohio State, though she is sure he would never consider her. Artie thinks otherwise, and acting on his advice, Cooter arranges a date with her.