• Hitfix, Friday, February 17, 2012 3:42 PM

The pilot episode of "Awake," set officially for a March 1 premiere, is now available on some Web sites and cable on-demand systems -- a stategy NBC also used for launching "Smash," whose pilot ratings were quite strong. 

Using the show as another test case of nontraditional premieres makes sense, writes Alan Sepinwall, because "Awake" is a show "with a terrific pilot, but also a complicated premise... that's raised questions both about how NBC can market it and how sustainable it is long-term."

Besides Sepinwall's analysis, this post also contains some interesting comments -- like the one suggesting that "NBC's standing is so diminished that maybe it's time to discard traditional programming strategy," and, for one, lower ad rates.

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