The Equalizer Cancelled At CBS
Robyn McCall's vigilante days are over: CBS has cancelled The Equalizer after five seasons, TVLine has learned. That means this Sunday's season finale (10/9c) will now serve as a series finale.
The cancellation follows CBS' decision not to proceed with a Titus Welliver-led spinoff.
Season-to-date, The Equalizer is averaging 5.8 million total viewers (with Live+7 playback), down 27% from its Season 4 audience. Out of the 14 dramas that CBS has aired this TV season, it ranks No. 12 (besting only NCIS: Sydney and the cancelled S.W.A.T.). Not helping The Equalizer's cause is the fact that it started Season 5 in an hour-than-later time slot (with Tracker now leading out of the well-watched 60 Minutes). Then at midseason, it got pushed back another hour, to lead out of Watson.
In TVLine's annual "Save One Show" poll, it came in seventh.
The Equalizer, which premiered in 2021, is a gender-flipped reimagining of the classic Edward Woodward procedural. Queen Latifah plays Robyn McCall, "an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills as a former CIA operative to help those with nowhere else to turn," according to the official logline. "McCall presents to most as an average single mom who is quietly raising her teenage daughter. But to a trusted few, she is The Equalizer – an anonymous guardian angel and defender of the downtrodden, who's also dogged in her pursuit of personal redemption." (Read Queen Latifah's statement on the cancellation here.)
Rounding out the ensemble are Tory Kittles (as Detective Marcus Dante), Adam Goldberg (as master hacker Harry Keshegian), Liza Lapira (as bar owner/sniper Melody "Mel" Bayani), Laya DeLeon Hayes (as Robyn's daughter Delilah) and Lorraine Toussaint (as Robyn's aunt, Viola "Vi" Marsette).
The Equalizer joins dramas FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International and S.W.A.T., freshman comedy Poppa's House and reality competition The Summit on the cancellation pile at CBS this season. The network has also ordered Blue Bloods offshoot Boston Blue, CIA (starring Lucifer's Tom Ellis) and the Harriet Dyer comedy DMV for next season. CBS' full fall schedule will be unveiled next Wednesday, May 7.
TVLine's Renewal/Cancellation Scorecard has been updated to reflect The Equalizer's demise. Are you sad to see it go?