I Can’t Believe CBS Just Cancelled the Perfect Replacement for Its 7-Part Series With 96% on RT

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However, it is still striking to see that CBS’s promising medical drama/police procedural mashup, Watson, was cancelled after only two seasons, even though Elementary show runner Craig Sweeny’s series seemed to have endless potential. As the title suggests, Watson focused on the continuing adventures of Holmes’ sidekick, Morris Chestnut’s titular Dr. Watson, after the death of the famous detective. Intriguingly, Watson’s story began after Holmes’ death, although What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry did voice the character in one audio-only season 1 cameo.

CBS’s Watson Was Cancelled Despite The Sherlock Holmes Show’s Critical Success

In a surprise twist, Watson season 2 not only brought back Holmes alive and well, but had the iconic character played by an entirely new actor. Trainspotting star Robert Carlyle was cast as Holmes in season 2 of Watson back in 2025, but this was not enough to save the series from the trash heap of cancelled CBS shows mere months later. Watson’s season 1 premiere started strong, earning a whopping 9.58 million viewers for its first episode. While this series high soon fell off, the show managed to maintain a more than respectable 4-5 million viewer average throughout season 1.

However, season 2’s premiere earned only 2.53 million viewers despite featuring the show’s first appearance from Carlyle’s version of Holmes. Since then, the ratings of the series continued to linger around the 2.5 million mark, which, while not particularly impressive, was not necessarily cause for alarm. For a frame of reference, Sweeny’s earlier Sherlock-related CBS series didn’t drop this low until Elementary‘s final season in 2017, but network TV ratings as a whole have dropped substantially in the nine years since that outing. Moreover, Watson boasted a lot of Elementary’s creative team, meaning its longevity seemed like a forgone conclusion.

Watson Can’t Pay Off Its Unique Approach To The Sherlock Holmes Franchise Now

Perhaps it should not come as a complete shock that Watson was cancelled, since Sweeny produced and wrote 2025’s disastrous Star Trek: Section 31, a TV movie that was roundly reviled as one of the worst instalments in the franchise’s history. However, it is still unfortunate to see the CBS procedural come to such an early ignominious end, as Watson had an unusual premise that gave the series plenty of potential.

Since Chestnut’s title character was a physician and a detective, his “Holmes Clinic” allowed Watson to bend elements of medical drama with its mystery procedural format. This meant that, at its best, the show resembled a mashup of E.R and Elementary, and future seasons could have leaned into this winning combination if CBS’s Sherlock Holmes re-imagining Watson had been able to last more than two outings on the network.