Instinct (American TV series)

For other uses, see Instinct.

Instinct (stylized as INSTIИCT) is an American police procedural drama television series which premiered on March 18, 2018, on CBS. The series is based on James Patterson's 2017 novel Murder Games. In May 2018, CBS renewed the series for a second season. The second season premiered on June 30, 2019. The series was cancelled near the end of its second season, on August 17, 2019. The series is notable for featuring a gay male character in the lead, who is married to another man.^[1]

Instinct
Genre	Police procedural Thriller Drama Mystery
Based on	Murder Games by James Patterson & Howard Roughan
Developed by	Michael Rauch
Starring	Alan Cumming Bojana Novakovic Daniel Ings Naveen Andrews Sharon Leal
Composer	James S. Levine
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	24
Production
Executive producers	Michael Rauch Alex Kurtzman Heather Kadin James Patterson Bill Robinson Leopoldo Gout Alan Cumming Marc Webb
Production locations	New York City, New York
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	44 minutes
Production companies	34 Films Secret Hideout James Patterson Entertainment Black Lamb CBS Television Studios
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	March 18, 2018 (2018-03-18) – August 25, 2019 (2019-08-25)

Premise

Author, university professor, and former CIA paramilitary officer Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Alan Cumming) is lured back to his old life by New York police detective Elizabeth Needham (Bojana Novakovic) when she needs his help to stop a serial killer who is using Reinhart's book as inspiration for murders.^[2]

Cast and characters

Main

• Alan Cumming as Dylan Reinhart, an author, psychology professor, and former CIA paramilitary officer, now a consultant to the NYPD in solving bizarre cases
• Bojana Novakovic as Elizabeth "Lizzie" Needham, an NYPD detective third grade^[3] who is stationed at the fictional 11th Precinct and Dylan's partner. Her partner, and fiancé, was killed in the line of duty a year prior, and she had since then refused to have a partner before meeting Dylan.
• Daniel Ings as Andrew "Andy" Wilson, Dylan's husband, a lawyer-turned-bar-owner who still uses his law skills to help their friends when needed
• Naveen Andrews as Julian Cousins, a contact of Dylan's from his days at the CIA who now works freelance and who specializes in computers and information retrieval
• Sharon Leal as Jasmine Gooden, an NYPD lieutenant who leads the 11th Precinct and who is Lizzie's supervisor and friend

Recurring

• Whoopi Goldberg as Joan Ross (season 1), Dylan's literary agent^[4][5][6]
• Andrew Polk as Doug, the medical examiner
• John Mainieri as Jimmy Marino, a police detective
• Michael B. Silver as Kanter Harris, a police sergeant
• Danny Mastrogiorgio as Anthony Fucci, a police detective
• Alejandro Hernandez as Rafael Sosa (season 1), a police detective
• Stephen Rider as Zack Clark, a police officer, later detective
• Travis Van Winkle as Ryan Stock (season 2), a police detective from Garfield County, Nebraska, who comes to New York to help the NYPD on the case of a potential serial killer
• Reshma Shetty as Maya Bhaduri (season 2), Julian's former lover and co-worker from his days at MI6, who comes to warn him about a group trying to shut down the city's first responders' unit

Production

Development

Instinct is based on James Patterson's Murder Games.^[7][8] The series was picked up to pilot by CBS on January 23, 2017.^[9] On May 12, 2017, CBS picked it up to series.^[10][11][12] On May 12, 2018, CBS renewed Instinct for a second season.^[13][14] Instinct was cancelled after its second season on August 17, 2019.^[15]

Casting

On February 8, 2017, Alan Cumming was cast as Dylan Reinhart.^[16] Bojana Novakovic was cast as Lizzie on February 18, 2017.^[17] On February 23, 2017, Daniel Ings was cast as Andy,^[18] and Naveen Andrews was cast as Julian.^[19] Khandi Alexander was originally cast as Monica Hernández in the pilot,^[20] but was replaced with Sharon Leal on June 22, 2017.^[21]

Episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	13		March 18, 2018 (2018-03-18)	July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01)
2	11		June 30, 2019 (2019-06-30)	August 25, 2019 (2019-08-25)

Season 1 (2018)

Instinct, season 1 episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Pilot"	Marc Webb	Michael Rauch	March 18, 2018 (2018-03-18)	INS101	9.05[22]
2	2	"Wild Game"	Doug Aarniokoski	Carol Flint & Constance M. Burge	March 25, 2018 (2018-03-25)	INS112	10.16[23]
3	3	"Secrets and Lies"	Peter Werner	Chris Ambrose	April 1, 2018 (2018-04-01)	INS108	6.61[24]
4	4	"I Heart New York"	Constantine Makris	Michael Rauch	April 8, 2018 (2018-04-08)	INS106	8.12[25]
5	5	"Heartless"	Don Scardino	Michael Rauch	April 22, 2018 (2018-04-22)	INS102	7.11[26]
6	6	"Flat Line"	Laura Belsey	Tanya Barfield	April 29, 2018 (2018-04-29)	INS111	7.01[27]
7	7	"Owned"	Doug Aarniokoski	Jill Abbinanti	May 6, 2018 (2018-05-06)	INS104	6.96[28]
8	8	"Long Shot"	Jay Chandrasekhar	Carol Flint	May 27, 2018 (2018-05-27)	INS103	5.16[29]
9	9	"Bad Actors"	Jim McKay	Dan E. Fesman	May 27, 2018 (2018-05-27)	INS105	4.68[29]
10	10	"Bye Bye Birdie"	Doug Aarniokoski	Constance M. Burge	June 3, 2018 (2018-06-03)	INS107	6.37[30]
11	11	"Blast from the Past"	Cherie Nowlan	Lee Ellenberg	June 17, 2018 (2018-06-17)	INS109	5.27[31]
12	12	"Live"	Ed Ornelas	Michael Ballin & Thomas Aguilar	June 24, 2018 (2018-06-24)	INS110	5.63[32]
13	13	"Tribal"	Michael Rauch	Michael Rauch	July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01)	INS113	4.51[33]

Season 2 (2019)

Instinct, season 2 episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
14	1	"Stay Gold"	Stephen Surjik	Michael Rauch	June 30, 2019 (2019-06-30)	INS201	3.59[34]
15	2	"Broken Record"	Alex Pilai	Keith Foglesong	July 7, 2019 (2019-07-07)	INS202	3.38[35]
16	3	"Finders Keepers"	Lee Rose	Carol Flint	July 14, 2019 (2019-07-14)	INS203	3.56[36]
17	4	"Big Splash"	John Behring	Marc Dube	July 21, 2019 (2019-07-21)	INS204	3.27[37]
18	5	"Ancient History"	Randy Zisk	Constance M. Burge & Jill Abbinanti	July 28, 2019 (2019-07-28)	INS205	3.35[38]
19	6	"One-of-a-Kind"	Janice Cooke	Michael J. Ballin & Thomas Aguilar	August 4, 2019 (2019-08-04)	INS206	3.11[39]
20	7	"After Hours"	Joe Collins	Erica Saleh	August 11, 2019 (2019-08-11)	INS207	3.50[40]
21	8	"Go Figure"	Cherie Nowlan	Anthony Johnston	August 11, 2019 (2019-08-11)	INS208	3.39[40]
22	9	"Manhunt"	Constantine Makris	John Cockrell	August 18, 2019 (2019-08-18)	INS209	3.47[41]
23	10	"Trust Issues"	Lee Rose	Carol Flint & Constance M. Burge	August 18, 2019 (2019-08-18)	INS210	3.09[41]
24	11	"Grey Matter"	Michael Rauch	Michael Rauch	August 25, 2019 (2019-08-25)	INS211	3.43[42]

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 54% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5.44/10. The website's consensus reads, "Instinct is ultimately an underwhelming police procedural, despite having Alan Cumming in its arsenal."^[43] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 53 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[44]

The character of Dylan Reinhart has been called groundbreaking for being the first openly gay lead character in an hour-long American network television drama series.^[45][46][a]

Ratings

Overall

Viewership and ratings per season of Instinct

Season	Timeslot (ET)	Episodes	First aired		Last aired		TV season	Viewership rank	Avg. viewers (millions)
			Date	Viewers (millions)	Date	Viewers (millions)
1	Sunday 8:00 p.m.	13	March 18, 2018 (2018-03-18)	9.05[22]	July 1, 2018 (2018-07-01)	4.51[33]	2017–18	TBD	TBD
2	Sunday 9:00 p.m.	11	June 30, 2019 (2019-06-30)	3.59[34]	August 25, 2019 (2019-08-25)	3.43[42]	2018–19	TBD	TBD

Season 1

Viewership and ratings per episode of Instinct

No.	Title	Air date	Rating/share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot"	March 18, 2018	1.0/4	9.05[22]	2.54	11.59[48]
2	"Wild Game"	March 25, 2018	1.3/5	10.16[23]	2.15	12.31[49]
3	"Secrets and Lies"	April 1, 2018	0.6/3	6.61[24]	—	—
4	"I Heart New York"	April 8, 2018	0.9/3	8.12[25]	1.48	9.61[50][b]
5	"Heartless"	April 22, 2018	0.6/3	7.11[26]	1.68	8.80[51][b]
6	"Flat Line"	April 29, 2018	0.6/3	7.01[27]	1.79	8.80[52]
7	"Owned"	May 6, 2018	0.7/3	6.96[28]	1.86	8.83[53]
8	"Long Shot"	May 27, 2018	0.4/2	5.16[29]	1.70	6.86[54]
9	"Bad Actors"	May 27, 2018	0.3/1	4.68[29]	1.97	6.65[54]
10	"Bye Bye Birdie"	June 3, 2018	0.5/2	6.37[30]	1.82	8.19[55]
11	"Blast From the Past"	June 17, 2018	0.4/2	5.27[31]	1.88	7.15[56]
12	"Live"	June 24, 2018	0.5/2	5.63[32]	1.62	7.25[57]
13	"Tribal"	July 1, 2018	0.4/2	4.51[33]	1.93	6.45[58]

Season 2

Viewership and ratings per episode of Instinct

No.	Title	Air date	Rating/share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR viewers (millions)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"Stay Gold"	June 30, 2019	0.3/2	3.59[34]	2.08	5.67[59]
2	"Broken Record"	July 7, 2019	0.3/2	3.38[35]	1.96	5.34[60]
3	"Finders Keepers"	July 14, 2019	0.3/2	3.56[36]	1.84	5.40[61]
4	"Big Splash"	July 21, 2019	0.3/2	3.27[37]	1.56	4.83[62]
5	"Ancient History"	July 28, 2019	0.3/2	3.35[38]	1.75	5.11[63]
6	"One-of-a-Kind"	August 4, 2019	0.3/2	3.11[39]	1.81	4.92[64]
7	"After Hours"	August 11, 2019	0.4/2	3.50[40]	1.92	5.42[65]
8	"Go Figure"	August 11, 2019	0.3/2	3.39[40]	2.20	5.59[65]
9	"Manhunt"	August 18, 2019	0.4/2	3.47[41]	1.86	5.34[66]
10	"Trust Issues"	August 18, 2019	0.3/2	3.09[41]	2.15	5.25[66]
11	"Grey Matter"	August 25, 2019	0.3/2	3.43[42]	1.91	5.34[67]

Home media

The first season was released in Region 1 on December 11, 2018, and on Region 2 on December 17, 2018.^[68]

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Instinct – Season One	13	December 11, 2018

Notes

1. The first lesbian main character in an American prime time TV series is Marilyn McGrath on HeartBeat.^[47]
2. Live +7 ratings were not available, so Live +3 ratings have been used instead.