It’s 2018, but CBS’ new drama INSTINCT is breaking ground: the procedural is the first broadcast series with a gay leading character, the CIA-agent-turned-author-turned-professor played by Alan Cumming.
“It was one of the reasons I wanted to do the show,” Cumming told reporters at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “To be the first ever network drama [with a gay leading character]on U.S. television, it’s an incredible thing and a terrible thing at the same time.”
Based on a James Patterson novel, Instinct follows Cumming’s Dr. Dylan Reinhart, a successful author and former CIA operative who heads back to his old life when the NYPD needs his help finding a serial killer, much to the chagrin of his husband, Andy (The Crown‘s Daniel Ings).
“Socially and politically, especially at time in America where gay people are being persecuted and our rights are being removed and the president is condoning the persecution against gay people by his silence, it was all the more important to have a character with a healthy same-sex marriage on TV,” Cumming said. “I applaud everyone on CBS for have the courage to put that on right now in a climate where that may not be the best time to do that. But I think it’s the perfect time to do that.”
The character’s sexuality was very much a part of Patterson’s novel, and was especially important to Cumming.
“I am married to a man so I brought to the table, but I was also very conscious of the fact that most of the time when you see gay characters, on American television especially, their gayness is the prime thing, and the gayness is somehow a problem,” he said.
“What I think is really refreshing about this and what I’m definitely advocating is that there’s a successful relationship, they’re very supportive of each other, and it’s also the fourth or fifth most interesting thing about the character.”
Instinct premieres Sunday, March 11 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
