Another passage from the Book of Job had been used in the opening of the episode "Dead Letters". Biblical verses were also used at the beginning of other episodes in the series, including the Book of Exodus in "Kingdom Come"; the Book of Jeremiah in "Weeds"; and the Gospel of Luke in "Blood Relatives". "Wide Open" was first broadcast on the Fox Network on January 3, 1997; and earned a Nielsen rating of 6.9, meaning that roughly of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode. The episode was watched by approximately households. "Wide Open" received mixed reviews from critics. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book "Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen", rated the episode one-and-a-half stars out of five, finding that its cold open was "the most distinctive thing about the whole case". Shearman and Pearson felt that the episode's killer was unspectacular, remaining "largely anonymous"; and that his death scene was "as half-hearted a climax as he deserves". Writing for "The A.V. Club", Zack Handlen rated the episode a B+, describing it as "thoroughly unsettling" and "solid stuff". Handlen felt that the treatment of the episode's villain was better than most other instalments of the series, which "helps give the episode overall a stronger sense of purpose". However, it was felt that the character of Frank Black was still too vague and impersonal, coming across simply as "a generic representation of Chris Carter's idea of heroism". Bill Gibron, writing for DVD Talk, rated "Wide Open" 3.5 out of 5. Gibron felt that the episode had "a clever premise, a great deal of suspense and some gruesomely graphic imagery", but criticized the "off-the-cuff" manner in which the killer's motives were explained.