"How I Met Your Mother" season 9 was at the center of a controversy, after an episode deemed racist against Asians aired last week. In this week's episode of "How I Met Your Mother" season 9, ratings actually increased, following an apology from the co-creators for offending viewers.

After a winter hiatus, "How I Met Your Mother" season 9 returned with "Slapsgiving 3: Slappointment in Slapmarra" on Jan. 13. The episode had 8.59 million US viewers, according to TV by the Numbers. Many were offended by the episode, which featured Marshall (Jason Segel) meeting three kung fu teachers played by Robin (Cobie Smulders), Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Ted (Josh Radnor). The actors -- all of whom are white -- dressed in Asian-themed costumes and makeup, leading viewers to accuse them of appearing in "yellow face"; Radnor even donned a "Fu Manchu" moustache.

Soon after the episode aired, "#HowIMetYourRacism" started trending on Twitter.

Surprisingly, this week's episode, titled "Unpause," actually saw an increase in ratings after the controversy. The ratings for "How I Met Your Mother" season 9, episode 15 was 8.83 million viewers in the US, an increase of about 250,000 since last week's kung fu episode.

Perhaps the scandal of the "racist" episode against Asians actually brought more attention to the CBS sitcom, which resulted in more viewers.

Last Wednesday, the creators of "How I Met Your Mother" apologized on Twitter for offending people with the episode.

Carter Bays wrote on his Twitter, in part: "With Monday's episode, we set out to make a silly and unabashedly immature homage to Kung Fu movies, a genre we've always loved. But along the way we offended people. We're deeply sorry, and we're grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it. We try to make a show that's universal, that anyone can watch and enjoy. We fell short of that this week, and feel terrible about it."

Meanwhile, in this week's episode, we learned the names of Ted's kids in the last few minutes: a flash forward shows Ted and the Mother in 2017, with the happy couple leaving for the hospital to deliver their second child, IGN reports. We learned Ted's kids are named Penny and Luke.

"How I Met Your Mother" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.