Instinct season 2 ratings suffer immediately from long layoff

We’ve been wondering for a while what in the world CBS was doing with Instinct season 2. They waited for a long time in order to premiere it, they didn’t give it any real burn at all during the 2018-19 season, and there wasn’t a lot of awareness out there for it. Unless you’ve been watching CBS programming regularly as of late (and you may not have, given that this is the summer), there’s a good chance that you weren’t even aware that it was back.

So when you consider all of this information, we don’t know how you can be surprised by the news that the season 2 premiere generated just a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. That’s down mightily from both the series premiere and the season 1 average; it is also the least-watched episode of the show to date, including the two lowry-rated episodes from season 1 that aired on Memorial Day last year.

We know an argument could be made that CBS at least gave Instinct season 2 a decent lead-in courtesy of Big Brother. Unfortunately, we’ve seen time and time again over the years that Big Brother is actually a pretty terrible lead-in to a lot of shows out there, especially scripted content. It’s just not the same sort of viewership. We do think that Big Brother is given somewhat of a bad shake by some older viewers, thinking that it’s all about hookups and people getting gunk thrown at them, but CBS is clearly happy with how they’re marketing that show. We wish there was a better way that one could lead into the other, but it is what it is.

So we’re concerned already for the future of Instinct, but also well aware that there is a lot of time left in which different things can happen, minds can change, and we can see the show find a different outcome. It’s hard to be optimistic, but if you love the show, keep supporting it. If nothing else, it’s a testament to everyone who poured a lot of work into making it as good as possible. We’ll see what happens within the weeks that follow.

Want to get some more news on Instinct season 2?

If you head over here, you can get some more news all about what’s coming up next! Meanwhile, let us know in the comments if you’re surprised at all about the performance of the show for the season 2 premiere. (Photo: CBS.)