Both actors appeared in the season's seventeenth episode. Emily Bergl was cast as Cyrus' ex-wife and also appeared in the seventeenth episode. Lauren Bowles was announced to be playing Mellie's half-sister, Harmony. She appeared in the eighteenth episode. After the season finale, it was announced that Portia de Rossi has been promoted to a series regular for the fifth season. The fourth season began airing September 25, 2014, in the U.S. in a new timeslot as a result of making room for ShondaLand produced show, "How to Get Away with Murder". The season premiered at the same time in Canada on City. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it premiered on Sky Living on January 8, 2015. The season premiere returned with universal acclaim from critics, with many commenting the accomplishment the premiere did to rebound the series after the third season, which many called "messy". The fourth-season premiere also scored a series high in Total Viewers with 11.96 million and in Adults 18-49 with a 3.8/11. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.08/10 based on 20 reviews. The series was its ratings increase from week to week compared to its broadcasting last year. The mid-season premiere "Run" was equaled the series's 2nd-highest-ever rating in adults 18-49. The fourth season saw a decrease in the 18-49 key demographic by 5.4 percent to a 2.9, but an increase in total viewers by .86 percent with an average of 9.19 million viewers. The series received both praise and criticism for the episode "The Lawn Chair" as it referred to the events in Ferguson, where a black 18-year-old, Michael Brown was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, 28, a white Ferguson policeman. Many praised showrunner Shonda Rhimes for a poignant episode and dialogue that mirrored much of the conversation around the shooting deaths of unarmed black men, whereas many meant it was too soon to air such an episode as it was too emotional and criticized the episode for being unrealistic. Joshua Alston from "The A.V. Club" commented that the episode "came across as condescending wish fulfillment", and criticized the episode for not being emotionally true. Aisha Harris from "Slate" criticized the episode for being too easily to define as she said "Most cases of this nature are not so easily defined—racism and prejudice are often much more covert than that.