CBS has confirmed that Alan Cumming drama Instinct has been renewed for a second season.
This is a bit of a surprise move considering the softness of the show’s ratings without a sports lead-in and how CBS has pulled an upcoming episode from the schedule. The show’s renewal odds seemed to be decent until the latter happened, which is typically a sign that a network isn’t satisfied with a show’s performance and doesn’t have as much invested as they once did. However, Instinct is a syndicatable show that’s owned by the network and fronted by someone marketable in Cumming, so they might want to give it another push to see what they have, if anything.
Considering how freakishly crowded CBS is, it would be something for Instinct to return in the fall. If it does wriggle its way onto the schedule, eschewing a more probable (but possibly more wasteful) midseason slot, it could signal that CBS isn’t confident in fellow owned drama SEAL Team‘s chances of finding a syndication deal and that they want to try and find an afterlife for at least one new drama from this class. With Scorpion having been cancelled over its lack of a syndication deal, the network might be trying to hedge its bets here.
Instinct airs Sundays at 8:00 on CBS.
