Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
Sherlock Holmes’ partner, John Watson (Morris Chestnut), is in a precarious situation, facing a mystery even Holmes would have trouble solving: “The Case of the Shrinking Audience.”
After a strong ratings start in January 2025 — thanks to an NFL AFC Championship game lead-in — ratings for “Watson” have been generally in decline even as the series grows creatively more compelling in its second season.
Through Feb. 10, “Watson” is CBS’s lowest-rated, prime-time scripted show and one of only three CBS scripted series that have not been renewed for next season. “Watson” is definitely “on the bubble” and may not make it.
But Squirrel Hill native Craig Sweeny, who created the Pittsburgh-set “Watson,” isn’t throwing in the towel. Sunday’s midseason premiere (10 p.m., KDKA-TV) still features a medical mystery, but it doesn’t appear until the second half of the episode, which kicks off with a sinkhole in Green Tree that swallows a man and his pregnant wife in their vehicle. Dr. John Watson talks the man through the emergency as the couple are trapped underground.
“We wanted a big, attention-grabbing, high concept mid-season premiere, no doubt about it,” Sweeny said. “Obviously the trope of a disaster on a medical show is well established — they’re doing them by twos and threes on certain shows now — but I embraced it as a fun challenge to find what is the Watsonian take on all of that.”
Sunday’s episode also marks the return of Pittsburgh native actress Margot Bingham as Nurse Carlin DeCosta, whose impeccable Pittsburgh accent is unlikely to ruffle feathers as others’ may.
Sweeny said he’s had no notes for Bingham on her accent. Bingham will appear in three of the last 10 episodes of “Watson’s” second season.
“Her dad was a Steeler, she flies the Pittsburgh flag,” Sweeny said. “To be able to drop that accent on camera and rep the city, I think it means a lot to her. It certainly means a lot to me.”
Should “Watson” return for a third season, Sweeny expects Bingham’s character to be back as well.
“Margot and the character of Carlin have both done a very good job of working themselves into the fabric of the show and making themselves feel essential,” Sweeny said. “I think with where we leave off — without wanting to undermine my own negotiating position — I see almost no way to move forward without Carlin as part of the show in season three.”
Sweeny said the back half of season two will resolve “The Pittsburgh Mystery” involving Sherlock Holmes (Robert Carlyle).
“Any and all questions about Sherlock will be answered,” Sweeny said, while acknowledging “Watson” will still conclude on “a fairly major cliffhanger.”
Whether Sweeny will get the chance to resolve that cliffhanger depends on if CBS renews “Watson.”
“They’ll bring the show back or they won’t,” Sweeny said, declining to speculate on what it would take to get renewed. Certainly, a return to Sunday night and having “Tracker” as a lead-in might help the “Watson” ratings.
It would also help if “Watson” turns up on Netflix sooner rather than later. Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, sold “Watson” reruns to Netflix and we’ve seen some shows in the past benefit from “the Netflix effect” where reruns on Netflix helped boost viewership of first-run episodes on a broadcast or basic cable channel (see: “Breaking Bad,” “Riverdale,” “You”).
Sweeny said he has no knowledge of when “Watson” will hit Netflix, adding, “And believe me, I’ve asked. If I could throw it up there today, I would.”
During our Feb. 18 conversation, Sweeny was still writing the third season finale with “Watson” production scheduled to wrap on March 9.
“I’m blessed just to have lines of dialogue to write,” Sweeny said. “I’m lucky to be working like anybody in this business.”
‘Marshals’
“Yellowstone” spinoff “Marshals” immediately undoes one of the original series’ few happy endings, which then sends Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) to work for the U.S. Marshals in a show set 15 months after the events of the “Yellowstone” series finale.
Premiering at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS (KDKA-TV), “Marshals” abandons the serialized storytelling of “Yellowstone” in favor of the familiar rhythms of a CBS crime procedural.
Although Kayce brings along his son (Brecken Merrill) and some confidantes from “Yellowstone’s” Broken Rock Reservation — Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) and Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) — the real focus, as on most CBS crime procedurals, is on Kayce and the Marshals team.
While “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan is an executive producer on “Marshals,” this is not his kind of storytelling, so showrunner duties pass to Spencer Hudnut, a veteran of CBS procedural “SEAL Team.”
In a virtual press conference last month, Hudnut said the 13-episode first season of “Marshals” walks a fine line, “culling enough ‘Yellowstone’ story to please that audience but also bring in people from the CBS audience who may” not have seen “Yellowstone.”
“My hope is that we have enough ‘Yellowstone’ for the ‘Yellowstone’ viewers,” Hudnut said, “and enough kinetic action and drama to please the CBS viewers as well.”
Hudnut has already started planning a second season of “Marshals” even though its renewal will depend on ratings success in season one.
“I do have a fairly strong sense for season two [of] what stories we want to tell with these characters,” he said. “We painted ourselves into a bit of a corner at the end of season one, which means we’re going to launch season two, hopefully, with a lot of propulsion.”
‘American Classic’
Kevin Kline stars in “American Classic” (9 p.m. March 1, MGM ) as Broadway star Richard Bean, who returns to his hometown and the family theater he grew up in after a public meltdown. Bean’s homecoming, which follows the death of his mother (Jane Alexander), is fraught as he squabbles with his ex-girlfriend (Laura Linney), who’s now married to his brother (Jon Tenney).
If this sounds familiar, it’s because “American Classic” is basically a non-musical version of PBS’s all-around superior “Happiness,” now filming its second season.
Created by Michael Hoffman (“Soapdish”) and Bob Martin (“Slings & Arrows”), “American Classic” is also reminiscent of Martin’s own “Slings & Arrows,” the 2003-06 Canadian comedy about a mad director who returns to run a theater festival after his mentor’s death.
These similarities wouldn’t matter if “American Classic” was funny or memorable, but the show rarely provokes laughs. Kline excels at pomposity, Linney nails exasperation and Tenney holds his own as a warm balm fighting the lunacy around him, but “American Classic” offers little to recommend beyond a generally comfy vibe.