We would love nothing more than to see The Equalizer get a chance to go out on a high. It deserves a sixth and final season, but CBS has decided not to renew it. Now, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach has explained why.
On top of that, Deadline has made it clear that we won’t get to see the sixth season at all. There is no chance that this series will be picked up by another network, and it’s got nothing to do with other networks saying no. It’s all linked to a disappointing decision by the show.
Why The Equalizer was canceled after five seasons
Reisenbach spoke positively about the series, but in the end, made it clear that the show’s costs outweighed the money coming in. It was a business decision, and it’s one of the worst decisions we as viewers can get. Linear ratings are on the decline, and the costs of production are going up. There’s little that we can do except to keep watching live, as it doesn’t seem like networks care too much about streaming figures — they don’t bring in the advertisement revenue for broadcast networks.
While there had been negotiations for a sixth and final season of The Equalizer, CBS ended up deciding not to go with it. Maybe it helped that the season 5 finale had been written to work as a series finale just in case, and while it left some questions, it did leave us off on a positive note that things are continuing without us watching.
“The schedule is really full and so we always have to look at all of our shows, look at the aggregate information, the creative of where they are in their life cycle, what the finances look like, what the ratings are, and then we make those tough decisions.”
The Equalizer season 6 won’t happen elsewhere
Of course, when a show is canceled, there are questions about another network picking it up. There were other homes that it could have potentially gone to, with Netflix being one of them. What about Prime Video, which does well with the crime genre, or even a network like NBC since Universal TV is a sister company?
There’s some disappointing news for The Equalizer fans, as there is no chance that this will happen. It has nothing to do with the other networks, though.
It turns out that the Queen Latifah series isn’t being shopped around. Without someone shopping it around, it can’t be saved elsewhere. It’s also bad for those invested, as it’s clear that Universal TV has given up on the show if it’s not shopping it around.
The same happened with FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted. After CBS decided not to go ahead with them, neither were shopped around, making their endings definitive.
The Equalizer is available to stream on Paramount+.
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