To be given permission to be confused -- and remain confused -- for as long as it takes would have been a huge gift.

TIME reported that the incident became the most replayed moment in TiVo history and Monte Burke of Forbes magazine reported "[t]he fleeting moment enticed an estimated 35000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up. "I Get Lonely" peaked at number three on the Hot 100. In December 1994 Janet Jackson collaborated with her brother Michael on "Scream" the lead single from his 1995 album HIStory which was written by both siblings as a response to the media scrutiny he suffered from being accused of child sexual abuse.

By the end of the 1990s Billboard named her the second most successful recording artist of the decade following Mariah Carey. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists her as the eleventh best-selling female artist in the United States with 26 million certified albums.