CBS Boss Speaks Out on Decision to Delay Season 2 of Hit Series Until 2026

Fans will have to wait a bit longer for new episodes of Watson.

Morris Chestnut’s freshman medical drama will not return this fall, with CBS holding Watson Season 2 for midseason in January on its 2025-26 TV schedule, marking an eight month gap between seasons.

Addressing the decision to hold Watson until midseason, CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach told Deadline that it really boiled down to a crowded fall schedule at the network. During the upconing TV season, a comedy block fills Mondays, Tuesdays are dedicated to NCIS, unscripted TV fills Wednesday’s timeslots, and new shows like Fire Country spin-off Sheriff Country and the Blue Bloods offshoot Boston Blue are set to debut.

“We’ll definitely be pushing viewers to binge it on Paramount+ in the meantime,” she said. “But there truly was a lack of room on the schedule. You look at that schedule, there’s no other real logical place for it.”

Reisenbach added that she is “fairly confident” that returning series Tracker and Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming new Yellowstone spinoff Y: Marshals, which will air at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sundays beginning in January, will be “very, very big lead-ins for Watson” at 10 p.m. ET.

“Watson does really, really well for us on streaming as well. So we expect that viewers who might not catch it at 10 o’clock will catch on streaming because it’s had such a loyal fan base over on Paramount+,” she said. “We think it’s the best of both worlds.”

Created by Craig Sweeny, Watson centers around Dr. John Watson from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Following Sherlock’s death at the hands of Moriarty, Watson steps into the lead role and resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders. However, as his old life isn’t done with him, he and Moriarty “are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century.”

In addition to Chestnut, the show also stars Eve Harlow, Peter Mark Kendall, Inga Schlingmann, Ritchie Coster, and Rochelle Aytes.

Watson premiered on CBS in January 2025 and was renewed for a second season weeks before it wrapped its 13-episode debut season on Sunday, May 11. At the time of its renewal, the series had been averaging 6.79 million viewers per episode and ranked second in the 18-49 demographic on CBS with a 0.445 rating.

Watson Season 1 is available to stream on Paramount+. Season 2 is set to premiere in January 2026, though an exact premiere date hasn’t yet been announced.