CBS’ authentic plan for the autumn of the 2025 TV schedule was to debut Tom Ellis’ new CIA sequence to air alongside fellow Dick Wolf TV manufacturing FBI on Monday nights. That modified with the community pushing CIA again to midseason, which meant shifting Watson Season 2 from a midseason 2026 premiere to fall 2025. That got here as nice information for followers of the physician/detective present starring Morris Chestnut, with the potential draw back of being cut up from Justin Hartley’s mega hit Tracker. Now, with the premiere weeks away, I’ve come to assume that the change might be nice for Watson.
Season 1 of Watson aired on Sunday nights, instantly after Season 2 of Justin Hartley’s drama. Whereas premiering after the AFC Championship Recreation (full with Taylor Swift in attendance) absolutely helped Watson get off to a robust begin, being paired with the #1 community TV sequence could not have damage the freshman sequence when constructing an viewers! For Season 2, Watson is shifting to air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET, instantly after FBI Season 8 at 9 p.m. ET, DMV at 8:30 p.m. ET, and The Neighborhood at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Whereas the time slot change won’t have occurred if CIA hadn’t been pushed again to 2026, it may repay for Watson.
For one factor, FBI is one in every of CBS’ different most-watched exhibits, and it looks like a secure guess that loads of individuals will probably be tuning in for Season 8 this fall. If airing instantly after Tracker on a Sunday night time was good for Watson Season 1, then I think about airing after FBI on Mondays is a superb different.
Monday arguably additionally isn’t essentially the most aggressive night time of scripted community TV this fall, so maybe extra individuals will probably be recreation to attempt Watson. Because the first season solely ran for 13 episodes and is offered streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, events would not even need to do an excessive amount of to catch up for Season 2.
With Season 2 including Robert Carlyle as Sherlock Holmes to recur as a visitor star reverse Morris Chestnut’s John Watson, I’m guessing some newcomers is perhaps curious sufficient to verify Watson out for the primary time. I’m assuming that promotion for Season 2 will lean on the present introducing Sherlock within the flesh, because the character solely “appeared” through a hallucinatory voice cameo from Matt Berry in Season 1. The duo of John Watson and Sherlock Holmes has been standard for effectively over 100 years, since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first brief story in regards to the pair. Why not on Watson?
Plus, the ten p.m. ET time slot on Mondays was profitable sufficient for NCIS: Origins final season that it was renewed and switched to a different night time for the 2025-2026 TV season. After all, being a part of the NCIS world meant that Origins was possible going to be an early hit it doesn’t matter what, so Watson is not assured to recruit all these viewers simply by inheriting the time slot. Nonetheless, maybe the time slot that labored so effectively for NCIS: Origins might be an excellent match for Watson.
Lastly – and admittedly, anecdotally – I at the very least discover myself extra prone to persistently watch a present that airs on a weeknight, and NBC showrunners informed me earlier this yr that it’s “very troublesome to get individuals to point out up on community tv” for a serialized present on Sunday nights. Watson was at the very least considerably serialized in Season 1, and the arrival of Sherlock Holmes leads me to suspect that the identical will probably be true for Season 2.
All in all, maybe there are sufficient variables on Monday nights to make up for Watson dropping the post-Tracker slot, and gaining the post-FBI time slot that had beforehand belonged to NCIS: Origins. Try the Season 2 premiere on Monday, October 13 at 10 p.m. ET, and/or streaming the subsequent day on Paramount+.