Robyn McCall has done her final quest for justice. CBS has opted not to renew crime drama The Equalizer, starring and executive produced by Queen Latifah, for a sixth season. This was the last CBS scripted series or pilot awaiting to learn their fate ahead of the network’s 2025-26 schedule announcement on May 7.
There are no plans for The Equalizer, produced by Universal Television, part of Universal Studio Group, to be shopped, I hear. Sunday’s Season 5 finale now will serve as a series finale.
As Deadline previously reported, The Equalizer had been in consideration for what was expected to be a 13-episode sixth and final season. Odds were always 50-50 at best, but there had been promising signs. Since finances play a key role in any renewal conversations these days, I hear producers of The Equalizer had agreed to reduce the budget of the show to the levels CBS had asked for, with Queen Latifah believed to have made concessions herself.
But that was never a guarantee for a pickup. It came down to the wire as CBS is putting the final touches on its 2025-26 schedule, with the network ultimately opting to cancel The Equalizer.
The series’ creative team may have had a premonition. I hear they crafted the Season 5 finale in a way that it could potentially serve as a series finale.
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It’s been a brutal year for bubble series at CBS. The wave of early renewals in February left six scripted series that had run full seasons in limbo. Of them, only one, veteran comedy The Neighborhood, was renewed or an eighth and final season. The remaining five — dramas FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International, The Equalizer and S.W.A.T. and freshman sitcom Poppa’s House — were canceled.
With FBI in Year 1 of a three-season renewal, Universal Television had three series (FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International and The Equalizer) and two planted spinoff pilots (The Equalizer spinoff and FBI offshoot CIA) in contention for next season. Of them, only CIA made it. With S.W.A.T. coming from Sony TV, all canceled CBS dramas this season were from outside studios.
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The network’s new scripted series for 2025-26 include Fire Country spinoff Sheriff Country, Blue Bloods offshoot Boston Blue and CIA on the drama side and comedy DMV, with drama Einstein being held for 2026-27. Of them all by CIA are produced by CBS sibling CBS Studios.
The Equalizer, which became the fourth network primetime drama headlined by a Black woman, got the biggest launch pad available in television with a series premiere behind the Super Bowl in 2021. It was a breakout hit and has been a reliable performer on Sundays. Like with other shows, its ratings have eroded, and the crime drama has been in the middle of the pack at CBS this year this season alongside shows as NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Sydney and FBI: Most Wanted.
A reimagining of the classic 1980s series, The Equalizer stars Queen Latifah as 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.
Alongside The Equalizer‘s legacy, there had been rumors about behind-the-scene tensions. That said, I hear the team was on board to do another season.
Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira and Laya DeLeon Hayes starred alongside Queen Latifah. Andrew Marlowe, Terri Edda Miller, co-showrunners Joseph C. Wilson and Adam Glass, Dana Owens (Queen Latifah), John Davis, John Fox, Debra Martin Chase, Richard Lindheim (co-creator of the original series), Shakim Compere, Joseph C. Wilson and Loretha Jones were executive producers.
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