Morris Chestnut (The Resident) cast in new CBS drama series Watson

CBS has given Watson, from writer Craig Sweeny (Elementary), Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment and CBS Studios, a straight-to-series order for the 2024-25 broadcast season. Watson is described as a medical series with a strong investigative dimension, featuring a modern version of one of history's greatest detectives who shifts his focus from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries. The series lives in a universe where Holmes has been killed off, something Conan Doyle reportedly planned to do with the final book The Final Problem.



Morris Chestnut (pictured) stars in the title role and is responsible for producing the medical drama inspired by the characters from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

In January 2023, CBS ordered two drama pilots, Elsbeth starring Carrie Preston and Matlock (2023) starring Kathy Bates, as well as writers' rooms for two medical drama projects, Watson and The Pact.

In anticipation of a series, CBS and CBS Studios recently appointed Chestnut as lead actor and Larry Teng as director and executive producer of the first episode, paving the way for a formal approval.

The Pact, from the CBS/NAACP Production Venture, has a different timetable. It remains in development after hiring a supervising writer just before the start of the WGA strike and is on track to move into a writers' room in the near future.

In Watson, a year after the death of his friend and partner Sherlock Holmes at the hands of Moriarty, Dr. John Watson (Chestnut) started his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to the treatment of rare diseases. However, Watson's old life isn't done for him yet - Moriarty and Watson are ready to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century.

“We are thrilled to feature such a beloved character from the world of Sherlock Holmes at the center of this series and have it brought to life by Morris Chestnut in a fresh and unexpected take on the immortal doctor,” said Amy Reisenbach, President, CBS Entertainment. “Craig Sweeny’s bold new vision for the complex Dr. Watson deftly interweaves rich character storytelling with edge-of-your-seat medical mysteries.”

Sweeny, who worked for five years on CBS' Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson procedural series Elementary, most of which he executive produced, wrote the pilot and will serve as showrunner for Watson. He co-produces the series with Chestnut, Kapital's Kaplan and Brian Morewitz and Shäron Moalem MD, PhD.

Watson is CBS's third new scripted series for the 2024-25 season, joining Matlock (2023) and comedy Poppa's House, whose launch was postponed this season due to strike-related production delays.

Chestnut returns to the medical world after his regular roles as a doctor on The Resident on Fox and Nurse Jackie on Showtime. He also played the lead role, a pathologist, in Fox's crime drama Rosewood.

Chestnut is currently developing a film for Netflix, which he is producing and starring in, and a series for BET, which he is executive producing – both through his MC8 Entertainment banner.

In 2023, Chestnut won his second NAACP award for Peacock's The Best Man: The Final Chapters. His first was for his work in Nurse Jackie. Last year, he was also cast as a series regular in the upcoming second season of Onyx's drama series Reasonable Doubt on Hulu and in the upcoming BET+ series Diarra from Detroit.

Chestnut is known for his memorable roles in films such as Boyz n the Hood, The Brothers, The Perfect Holiday, Think Like A Man and especially The Best Man franchise, which he reprized in the Peacock limited series revival. In 2022, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.