After CBS' Latest Cancellation, Watson Showrunner And Star Talk Getting Renewed And Hype The 'Massive' Two-Part Finale

Yahoo

08-05-2025

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The end is nigh for the first season of CBS' Watson, and the stakes are as high as they've ever been for John and Co. in the 2025 TV schedule. While there's plenty for fans to worry about with Moriarty coming face-to-face with Watson, there's one thing nobody needs to stress over: whether the doctor/detective show will be cancelled like The Equalizer was just days before its own finale. When I spoke with showrunner Craig Sweeny and actor Peter Mark Kendall, they shared their thoughts on their show's Season 2 renewal and why the finale case needs two parts.
The two-part Watson finale kicks off on Sunday, May 4 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS (and streams next day with a Paramount+ subscription) with the first episode, called "Your Life's Work, Part 1." Per the network's logline, part of the team will fall ill after being targeted as part of a sinister plot, and I'd say that the first eleven episodes of the season are enough to guess that Moriarty is behind the plot. (Plus, that promo!)
In light of the cancellation of The Equalizer, which is one of Watson's primetime partners on Sunday nights, there's more to celebrate than ever with Morris Chestnut's drama getting an early renewal. When I spoke with creator/showrunner Craig Sweeny, who came to Watson with experience in network TV renewals/cancellations after producing on shows like Medium and Elementary, weighed in:
It's great! Unambiguously, just great. 10 out of 10. [laughs] No, complaints. As you say, I'm lucky to have been doing this for a minute now.... The 4400 went four seasons, and Medium went seven seasons, and Elementary went seven seasons. I wasn't on all those shows for all the seasons, but I began just kind of assuming that, yeah, you do one season and then you make another one, and subsequent events have shown that that is not always the case. I just couldn't be happier. I love this world, these characters. I feel really lucky to write the show. I'm just so excited we have a second season order.
The executive producer of course isn't the only one at the show who has reason to celebrate the guarantee of another season, with Eve Harlow and Rochelle Aytes sharing their reactions to the good news earlier this season. When I spoke with Peter Mark Kendall, who plays double duty on Watson as twins Adam and Stephens Croft, he explained:
It's such a strange thing making a show and then having a hiatus, especially when it's a show that is so dear and so beloved by so many people that [you're] just kind of hoping, praying that it happens, and then finally getting that news is such a relief. It's such excitement, you know, and so many texts and phone calls would be like, 'Aaaah! Guys, we get to do this again!' So I think now it's just excitement and kind of itching to get started again.
Based on the promo for the first part of the finale, one of the Croft twins doesn't appear to be in the best shape, although it's impossible to say which one. After all, Stephens' glasses are usually the best giveaway, but nobody needs to wear spectacles when they're seemingly unconscious in a hospital bed!
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Watson doesn't often delve into crises that affect the characters' health personally, but it certainly looks like one (or both) of the Croft twins are in for a ride! And this time, it'll be a ride that takes two hours of television. When I asked Craig Sweeny what about the case of "Your Life's Work" needs a two-parter, he previewed:
Of all the two partners I've done, none demands two parts more than more than this one, I would say, because it's a big case procedurally in that it pays off the storyline of what Moriarty has been doing with the clinic, and it pays it off in a scientifically accurate but also very scary way that feels like science fiction. It also brings all of the relationships that we've built up over the course of the season into high relief, and everybody feels tension, and some of them survive, some of the relationships survive, and some of them don't. And it also has life or death stakes for a couple of the main characters. Really, everything is on the table for a massive two part spectacle.
All signs point toward Peter Mark Kendall having an eventful penultimate episode of Season 1 as both of his characters... unless the preview is pulling a fakeout about whether one of the twins is in danger! Kendall didn't specifically spoil what fans can look forward to in either half of the two-parter, but he did have his own thoughts on why this case needs back-to-back episodes:
I think it's because, for the first time, part of our crew, our fellowship, we are also the patients as well as the doctors. And I think we get to see kind of vulnerability and heroism from people that we don't normally get to see that from. I think TV is always the most fun when it's life-or-death, especially for a hospital-slash-detective show. It kind of heightens the stakes and makes everything feel that much more exciting.
In case you doubt those stakes with the first half of the finale quickly approaching, check out the preview of not only one of the Croft twins looking rough, but Moriarty meeting Watson and Ingrid seemingly connecting the dots about Randall Park's character:
Part 1 of Watson's Season 1 finale airs on Sunday, May 4 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, between Tracker at 8 p.m. ET and the series finale of Queen Latifah's The Equalizer at 10 p.m. ET. Part 2 of the finale airs on May 11 in the usual Watson time slot. All three shows are also available streaming on Paramount+.