Watson premiered on CBS as a doctor/detective drama early in the 2025 TV schedule and unfortunately was not on the list of nine shows the network renewed back in February. It also wasn't cancelled alongside FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International in early March, so the wait was on for news of whether or not Morris Chesnut's newest show would get a Season 2. That wait is now over, and the news came along with ratings data for the series premiere that reminded me of what Chestnut and creator Craig Sweeny previously told CinemaBlend.
Ratings And Renewal
The Season 2 renewal for Watson has finally been confirmed, and it will be part of the 2025-2026 TV season. That doesn't necessarily mean that it will return as part of CBS' fall schedule rather than held for a midseason premiere early in the new year, but fans can officially count on seeing more of John Watson and Co. beyond the upcoming Season 1 finale. And who knows? Perhaps more of Randall Park as Moriarty and Whoopie Van Raam's Irene Adler, the latter of whom makes her Watson debut in the new episode on March 30.
The good news isn't too surprising now based on the early and subsequent ratings, despite the fact that it wasn't renewed at the same time as fellow Sunday night drama Tracker. The series premiere has been viewed by 18.7 million viewers across platforms, in live+35 day totals. Per data from Nielsen as well as internal numbers, that's enough to make it CBS' most-watched scripted episode of the 2024-2025 TV season and the most-streamed CBS Original scripted episode among viewers with a Paramount+ subscription. That total is 7 million viewers.
Morris Chestnut And Creator Craig Sweeny Weighed In On The Strong Premiere Time Slot
It was seeing those ratings numbers that reminded me of when I was fortunate enough to speak with leading man Morris Chestnut as well as creator/showrunner/executive producer Craig Sweeny at SCAD TVfest earlier this year. At the time, only the very first episode had aired on CBS, but the network gave it a very big premiere slot: after the AFC Championship game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.
Since Fox was the network airing the Super Bowl this year (as opposed to Tracker getting CBS' post-Super Bowl slot in 2024), the AFC Championship was actually the strongest NFL night that CBS could give Watson in early 2025. When I spoke with the Watson team on the TVfest red carpet, I had to ask – how did it feel for them to get such a strong launch from the network? Sweeny responded:
Flattering, a blessing. We're grateful for it. We were together with our crew, our LA-based crew,watching the game, and we're also grateful to the players of Bills and the Chiefs for playing such a competitive game.
I'm no NFL expert, but even I knew that the game that would decide whether the Chiefs would have a shot at winning their third Super Bowl in three years was going to attract a lot of viewers, not to mention that this wasn't the first time the Bills were the opponent for the shot at the championship. Whether football aficionados were rooting for the Chiefs to make Super Bowl history with a three-peat or for the underdog Bills to come out on top, anticipation was high.
The game was also incredibly close, with the Chiefs ultimately winning 32-29. And for non-NFL experts who were watching in the hopes of seeing Taylor Swift there to support Travis Kelce... well, they were in luck. Morris Chestnut shared his two cents on what Sweeny described as "such a competitive game" preceding Watson, telling me:
All the way to the end! And thank you, Taylor, for showing up. Everybody stayed tuned to see what happens.
Craig Sweeny, who came to Watson with experience on CBS with dramas connected to Sherlock Holmes lore thanks to Elementary, went on:
My goodness, it couldn't have been [better]. I suppose if we were after the Super Bowl, but that just feels like obscene greed. [laughs] It's the best launch you could possibly have.
With Fox airing the 2025 Super Bowl, the post-AFC Championship slot quite literally was "the best launch" the Watson team could have hoped for in a premiere tied to a NFL game. The 18.7 million viewers total of course isn't only accounting for people who just tuned in on that first date, but it's a safe bet that the number would be lower if not for getting that premiere time slot.
And I can't help but suspect that airing directly after Justin Hartley's Tracker on Sunday nights doesn't hurt either. The actor's This Is Us follow-up continues to do well and was among the shows that received early renewals. For more Watson, keep tuning in to CBS on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET between Tracker and The Equalizer, or stream via Paramount+.
