Queen Latifah crime drama The Equalizer canceled after 5 seasons

The Equalizer, the CBS crime series which stars Queen Latifah, has been canceled after five seasons. The fifth — and now final season — set to conclude on Sunday.

While the news may seem abrupt and won’t allow The Equalizer to go out in a way that will completely satisfy fans, Deadline reports that the showrunners purposely designed the fifth season finale to be able to play as a series send-off. Obviously that points to them being well aware that The Equalizer could have been headed towards the chopping block.

Queen Latifah reacted to the news of The Equalizer’s cancellation by taking to Instagram, writing, “Stepping into a kick-ass role like Robyn was everything I hoped it would be. Shakim [Compere] and I at Flavor Unit are always excited to bring these kinds of roles and projects to life-and then we just hope you love them as much as we do. The Equalizer blew past every dream we had for it, and having the opportunity to do this for five seasons honestly feels surreal. Thank you to our amazing cast, crew, and producers and writers! And I can’t say enough about the FANS! Y’all have been so loyal, so loud, and so ride-or-die-and that’s exactly why we keep doing this. We can’t thank you enough. It means the world to us.And don’t worry-I’ll be back kicking ass in something new real soon. Can’t wait to share it with you.”

One key factor for the cancellation came down to money, with Deadline also reporting that episode budgets, along with Queen Latifah’s salary, were looking to be trimmed. Ratings for The Equalizer had also dipped drastically over the seasons. The series debut had an expectedly big audience with a little over 20 million viewers but by the time it got around to season five last fall, viewership was down to around a quarter of that. Knowing now that the series won’t be returning for a sixth, maybe those who left during its run will show up for one last hour with Robyn McCall.

The supporting cast of The Equalizer also featured Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liz Laura, and Chris Noth.

The Equalizer was actually a reimagined version of the mid-‘80s show of the same name which starred Edward Woodward. That series, too, would be spun into a full-blown trilogy (for now…) starring Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua.

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