# Watson (TV series)

Watson is an American television series created by Craig Sweeny which premiered on CBS on January 26, 2025. The series, described as a "medical drama with detective elements", is centered around the character of Dr. John Watson from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, with Morris Chestnut portraying the character. It is the second CBS series to adapt the Holmes stories, after Elementary. While the two programs are otherwise unrelated, their creative teams overlap.

## Premise

One year after Sherlock Holmes's apparent death at the hands of his archenemy Moriarty in Reichenbach Falls, Dr. John Watson resumes his medical practice by opening the "Holmes Clinic" in Pittsburgh to treat patients with strange and unidentifiable issues. Soon however, Watson must face his past when evidence surfaces indicating that Moriarty is still alive.

## Cast
### Main

* Morris Chestnut as John Watson, a clinical geneticist and former London-based consulting detective who heads the Holmes Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To aid his patients' cases, he applies a specific and incisive type of deductive reasoning that he learned from his years working with Sherlock Holmes.
* Eve Harlow as Ingrid Derian, an aloof but highly skilled neurologist with an enigmatic past. She has a shaky relationship with her colleagues owing to her stony manner and questionable methods.
* Peter Mark Kendall as Stephens Croft and Adam Croft, identical twin brothers, acting as infectious disease and functional medicine specialists at the clinic. Stephens, a Johns Hopkins graduate, is an emotionally withdrawn workaholic, while Adam, who attended Boston University, talks too much. They have a strained relationship, owing to the fact Adam is dating Stephens' ex-fiancée.
* Inga Schlingmann as Sasha Lubbock, an affable specialist in rheumatology and immunology. She is torn between her birth parents from China and her adoptive family from Dallas.
* Ritchie Coster as Shinwell Johnson, a former criminal from London and an acquaintance of Holmes and Watson who works as the clinic's administrative aide, his connections often proving very useful to the team.
* Rochelle Aytes as Mary Morstan, a noted East Coast surgeon and Watson's estranged wife who serves as the clinic's medical director. Despite their impending divorce, she maintains a productive working relationship with Watson, acting as his voice of sanity and attempting to rein in his more irregular techniques.

### Recurring

* Kacey Rohl as a subordinate of Moriarty who forces Shinwell to carry out her employer's bidding

### Guest

* Randall Park as Professor James Moriarty, a criminal mastermind and Sherlock Holmes' archenemy who reemerges from his presumed "death" with a nefarious agenda
* Nat Faxon as Hobie McSorley
* Kiera Allen as Gigi, Ingrid's paraplegic sister.
* Matt Berry as the voice of Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant British consulting detective and Watson's best friend who was seemingly killed alongside Moriarty. Berry voices the character in hallucination scenes. He will appear in the seventh episode.
The characters Inspector Lestrade and Irene Adler will also appear.

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U.S. viewers (millions) |
| 1 | "Pilot" | Larry Teng | Craig Sweeny | January 26, 2025 (2025-1-26) | 9.58 |
| Dr. John Watson suffers a traumatic brain injury during the final encounter between detective Sherlock Holmes and master criminal James Moriarty. Waking up in a Swiss hospital, Watson learns from Shinwell Johnson that Holmes secretly funded a private clinic in his will so Watson could find a new purpose in the event of his death. Several months later, Watson and his handpicked team take on a new patient at the request of his ex-wife, hospital administrator Mary Morstan. The patient, Erika Filipello (Anjelica Bette Fellini), is seemingly dying from fatal insomnia, but using his investigative skills, Watson determines not only that she is suffering from a genetic deficiency of biotinidase but that her similarly ill cousin Autumn (Shannon Berry) is actually the girl's half-sister. However, Autumn goes into septic shock, and Watson is unable to call in his usual surgeon due to adverse weather. Mary, a former surgeon, agrees to operate, saving Autumn's life. Watson later retrieves his old case files at Mary's encouragement. Shinwell delivers a case of genetic samples to a still-alive Moriarty, who reminds him that he is watching "always and everywhere." ||||||
| 2 | "Redcoat" | Larry Teng | Craig Sweeny | February 16, 2025 (2025-2-16) | 4.32 |
| Entrepreneur Andrew Tanner (Damian O'Hare) is left with a bullet lodged in his brain from an attempted murder. His case is further complicated when he claims to be the famous Scottish military officer Patrick Ferguson. Watson gives his team a lesson in the value of applying investigative techniques while deducing the cause of Tanner's condition. Stephens is able to glean from social media that he has symptoms consistent with Huntington's disease. Combined with Sasha's search of the crime scene and information from Watson's "Irregulars," the team realizes that Tanner is faking his insanity; having botched his "murder," the patient plans to commit suicide to preserve his family's life insurance. Watson then notices an additional symptom while foiling Tanner's suicide attempt and determines that he actually has Wilson's disease, which can be treated. To remove the bullet, Ingrid persuades former flame Isaac (Hampton Fluker), who blames her for ruining his career, to operate. Isaac declines a job offer from Mary and warns her not to trust Ingrid. Johnson is approached by Moriarty's agent (Kacey Rohl), who has him switch out Watson's medication with an identical set of pills. ||||||
| 3 | "Wait for the Punchline" | Christine Moore | Sallie Patrick | February 23, 2025 (2025-2-23) | 4.69 |
| Molly Jones (Djouliet Amara), an aspiring comedian, collapses while performing and comes to the Holmes Clinic; John is intrigued when she explains how previous doctors had diagnosed her with epilepsy, but then collapses himself. He sustains a second traumatic brain injury and begins hallucinating visions of Sherlock and of Moriarty's fused fingers. Despite the team's concerns, Watson accepts Molly as a patient and has Stephens look into her family history. He learns that "Molly" is actually Linda Mancini, daughter of convicted murderer Felicia Mancini (Lisa Arrindell). A visit to Felicia gives Watson vital clues, and he identifies Molly's condition as that of long QT syndrome, which can cause sudden death. This insight also convinces him that Felicia was wrongfully convicted of drowning Molly's siblings. His own condition soon worsens, however, and the team forces him to return home. A guilt-ridden Shinwell is told he can switch Watson's pills back, curing him of the hallucinations. Molly undergoes surgery to fix her heart, and evidence supplied by Watson enables the DA to initiate proceedings for releasing Felicia from prison. Mary visits Watson and warns him that she can no longer hide his condition from the hospital board. Meanwhile, Ingrid tries to get her spinal research project off the ground, and Adam tries to reconnect with Stephens. ||||||
| 4 | "Patient Question Mark" | Ron Underwood | Teresa Tuan | March 2, 2025 (2025-3-2) | 4.04 |
| During a team exercise to identify the clinic's next patient, Sasha diagnoses a rich lawyer (Michael Kostroff) with Cowden syndrome; despite surgery, the man dies on the table. Noticing Sasha's emotional distress, Watson learns that while attending medical school, Sasha worked on a cadaver that also had Cowden syndrome. As Cowden's is both hereditary and difficult to detect, Watson realizes that others may be at risk. He, Ingrid, and Sasha trace the cadaver to an Amish community in Lancaster, where the residents remember Watson from years earlier when he studied among them. The team is informed that the deceased had a sister, Rachel Smith (Sprague Grayden), who was banished from the community and now lives with her young son, Amos (Cruze McKinnon). When Amos starts having trouble breathing, Watson takes him in for treatment but ultimately cedes his role to Derian after recognizing that he cannot be trusted with patients in light of his condition. Sasha's efforts to have the Amish residents tested uncovers more than a dozen cases of Cowden, and Watson commends her. Shinwell purchases a tracking device and plants it on the car of Moriarty's agent. He later retrieves it after seeing her with a young, sick girl. Watson visits Mary at home and says that he will not contest their divorce, urging Mary to live her life even if he isn't a part of it. ||||||
| 5 | "The Man With The Glowing Chest" | Tara Nicole Weyr | Shardé Miller | March 9, 2025 (2025-3-9) | 4.84 |
| 6 | "The Camgirl Inquiry" | Bille Woodruff | Neal Dusedau | March 16, 2025 (2025-3-16) | 5.15 |
| 7 | "Teeth Marks" | Jennifer Lynch | Charly Evon Simpson | March 23, 2025 (2025-3-23) | TBD |
| 8 | "A Variant of Unknown Significance" | TBA | TBA | March 30, 2025 (2025-3-30) | TBD |

## Production

Watson was announced in October 2022, to be created, written and produced by Craig Sweeny who had previously worked on Elementary. The show was given a straight to series order, bypassing the pilot stage.
By January 2024, Morris Chestnut was attached to executive produce and star as the title character. Executive producer Larry Teng will direct the first two episodes. In May, Peter Mark Kendall and Ritchie Coster were announced as the first core cast additions. In June, Rochelle Aytes was cast as Mary Morstan, followed by Eve Harlow and Inga Schlingmann.
Watson began shooting in Vancouver in June 2024, with filming locations including The Bridge Studios and the University of British Columbia campus. The shoot concluded on November 22, 2024. The show is set in Pittsburgh, where some exterior scenes were shot.
The series is scored by Paul Leonard-Morgan.

## Release

The first episode had its worldwide premiere at MIPCOM Cannes on October 20, 2024. The series premiered on January 26, 2025, on CBS, after the AFC Championship football game, and will stream on Paramount+. In Canada, the series airs on Global and will stream on StackTV.

## Reception
### Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 56% approval rating with an average rating of 5.9/10, based on 16 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Transplanting Sherlock Holmes lore into a medical procedural, Watson's conceit proves an awkward fit but gets a boost from the ever-watchable Morris Chestnut." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

### Ratings

Viewership and ratings per episode of Watson :
| No. | Title | Air date | Rating/share (18–49) | Viewers (millions) | DVR (18–49) | DVR viewers (millions) | Total (18–49) | Total viewers (millions) |
| 1 | "Pilot" | January 26, 2025 | 1.60/21 | 9.58 | 0.08 | 1.30 | 1.68 | 10.88 |
| 2 | "Red Coat" | February 16, 2025 | 0.26/3 | 4.32 | 0.11 | 1.97 | 0.36 | 6.28 |
| 3 | "Wait for the Punchline" | February 23, 2025 | 0.27/4 | 4.69 | 0.10 | 1.69 | 0.36 | 6.38 |
| 4 | "Patient Question Mark" | March 2, 2025 | 0.22/2 | 4.04 | 0.11 | 1.69 | 0.34 | 5.74 |
| 5 | "The Man With The Glowing Chest" | March 9, 2025 | 0.27/4 | 4.84 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| 6 | "The Camgirl Inquiry" | March 16, 2025 | 0.31/4 | 5.15 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD |