The pilot episode has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 of reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 79 based on 32 reviews. In June 2011, "Smash" was one of eight honorees in the "Most Exciting New Series" category at the Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots. Matt Mitovich of TVLine called the cast "pretty damn perfect" and complimented the musical numbers. Mary McNamara of the "Los Angeles Times" called the show a "triumph" and also went on to say that the creator Theresa Rebeck as well as her team, "have managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television". In the "Chicago Tribune" she also compared the episode to "Glee" and "A Chorus Line". Maureen Ryan of The Huffington Post called it one of the strongest new shows of the season. Another "Huffington Post" writer Karen Ocamb praised the writing and the creativity of the series. She also complemented the New York City setting of the series saying "you feel as if you're walking down noisy and beloved Times Square with the characters." Tim Goodman from "The Hollywood Reporter" called the episode an "Excellent, a bar-raiser for broadcast networks" and called it superior to "Glee". He also praised writing and acting for the series, comparing it to the quality of a cable television series.