TV Premiere of "The Day After"

On its original broadcast, on Sunday, November 20, 1983, more than 100 million people, watched the film when it first aired on the ABC television network.

The Day After received a large promotional campaign prior to its broadcast. Discussion groups were also formed nationwide. ABC and local TV affiliates opened 1-800 hotlines with counselors standing by.

ABC then aired a live debate on Viewpoint, ABC's occasional discussion program hosted by Nightline's Ted Koppel, featuring the scientist Carl Sagan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, General Brent Scowcroft, and the commentator William F. Buckley Jr. Sagan argued against nuclear proliferation, but Buckley promoted the concept of nuclear deterrence.

The film was broadcast on Soviet state television in 1987, during the negotiations on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Censors forced ABC to cut an entire scene of a child having a nightmare about nuclear holocaust and then sitting up screaming. A psychiatrist told ABC that it would disturb children.

In July 2018, a rough cut of the film appeared online, although rumors had long circulated that a second, even more dramatic version of the film existed, but it had never been released. The rough cut contains several new scenes as well as longer takes of scenes already included in the film. The rough cut contains almost fifteen minutes more footage.

The film received 12 Emmy nominations and won two Emmy awards. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the film received the Goldene Leinwand Award for reaching three million viewers in the cinema.

The same theme was also the subject of the British film Threads in 1984 and When the Wind Blows in 1986.