'Watson' Will Continue Sherlocking Sans Sherlock in Season 2
No matter what TV critics tell you, we really don't know anything about why a show hits. We can guess and extrapolate data; if we're reporters for certain newspapers, we can go find a diner in the middle of nowhere and ask folks what they watch and why. But we often guess wrong, like everyone at BBC America seeing Ripper Street as the big hit and Orphan Black as some weird little Canadian show with the same actor playing all the leads. Perhaps a better example: In 2012, if someone had told critics the Johnny Lee Miller-Lucy Liu Elementary would run three seasons longer than the Benedict Cumberbatch-Martin Freeman Sherlock, they'd have been laughed out of the room.
But, much like Orphan Black was the big breakout hit for BBCA, Elementary lasted until 2019, two years longer than Sherlock's final season, which ran the franchise into the ground so hard in 2017 that it has yet to recover. Meanwhile, CBS and Paramount, the network behind Elementary, have already launched its second successful Sherlock Holmes adjacent series, with Watson's first season improving week over week. Along with the Season 2 announcement, Paramount released figures showing the premiere episode (which aired January 26, 2025, after the AFC Title Game) was its most-watched scripted episode of the 2024-25 season. Per Nielsen, the show is averaging ~6.5 million viewers each week.
One reason that Watson is so successful is that it is based on an already proven formula. Sherlock shows that are not very Sherlocky have always done well on American TV; Hugh Laurie convinced the entire country he was American by the time the Sherlock-inspired House MD ended after a decade on air. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes shows that are much more Sherlock-forward tend to be period pieces that wind up on PBS and BritBox, narrowing their appeal simply by where they are distributed.
