CBS has announced that Best Man star Morris Chestnut will play the lead role in Watson, a medical drama inspired by the mythology of Sherlock Holmes.
Dr. Watson was, of course, the legendary detective’s partner in solving crimes, but in the new show — which has already been ordered to series by the network — Watson gets back to work in the medical field after Holmes is killed by their nemesis Moriarty.
The network teases, “A year after the death of his friend and partner … Dr. John Watson resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders.”
“Watson’s old life isn’t done with him, though,” CBS continues. “Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century.”
The series is being called “a medical show with a strong investigative spine, featuring a modern version of one of history’s greatest detectives as he turns his attention from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries.”
It’s not Chestnut’s first appointment with the medical genre: He played skilled neurosurgeon Dr. Barrett Cain in Fox’s hit The Resident.
In the announcement, Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, said, “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.”
Watson is also not the first time CBS has mined Holmes lore: Its series Elementary ran for seven seasons, ending in 2019. It, too, was an updated take on Arthur Conan Doyle‘s detective, with Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson.
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