Why the success of The Equalizer is bigger than the show itself
In the fall of 2014, Denzel Washington appeared on Queen Latifah’s daytime talk show to discuss his latest project, “The Equalizer,” a film adaptation of the 1980s TV series of the same name. “I absolutely love the fight scenes in this movie,” Latifah told Washington, who demonstrated a disarming technique he learned from the movie’s “stunt guys.” Latifah recalled her SWAT officer father teaching her tactical moves at an early age, prompting Washington to joke: “So, you can hurt somebody.”
“Yeah,” Latifah said with a smirk, “you want to leave me alone.”
That interview foreshadowed the role that the Oscar-nominated actress, born Dana Owens, enthusiastically stepped into this year on a new CBS reboot of the series. “The Equalizer” premiered in the coveted post-Super Bowl spot in February — becoming the first scripted series in more than 25 years to make its debut after the big game — and introduced Latifah as Robyn McCall, a single mother and former CIA operative who secretly pursues vigilante justice on behalf of the disenfranchised.
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Although some critics have praised Latifah’s performance, reviews for the drama have been lackluster overall. But the show’s accomplishments are undeniable. The ratings, though significantly down from the 20 million-plus viewers that tuned in for the debut, have remained respectable, keeping CBS atop prime-time TV rankings even as fewer viewers look to broadcast TV each week. The network renewed the show for a second season just four episodes in, well ahead of its Season 1 finale airing Sunday.
Its success highlights important strides the entertainment industry has made in the years since Latifah unknowingly interviewed Washington about the role she would one day take on.
“The Equalizer” makes Latifah one of only a handful of Black women to lead an hour-long prime-time drama. That group also includes Teresa Graves, who made a pioneering turn on the short-lived ’70s drama “Get Christie Love”; Kerry Washington and Viola Davis, who starred on Shonda Rhimes’s “Scandal” and “How to Get Away with Murder,” respectively; and Simone Missick, the lead of CBS’s recently canceled legal drama “All Rise.”
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Fittingly, “The Equalizer” reunited Latifah with executive producer Debra Martin Chase, an industry veteran who first worked with the actress on the underappreciated 2010 romantic comedy “Just Wright.” Chase has a slew of hits under her belt including the long-awaited Harriet Tubman biopic that earned Cynthia Erivo an Oscar nod for best actress, “The Princess Diaries” and Disney Channel’s groundbreaking 1997 adaptation of “Cinderella.”
For Chase, “The Equalizer” helps bring a longtime dream to fruition. “I have been trying for almost 20 years to bring a Black woman who kicks butt to the screen,” she said in a video interview.
During the show’s press tour, Chase emphasized that Robyn McCall had always been envisioned as a Black woman. That identity, Chase said, lends a versatility to the character — something the producer has been saying for years.
“She can dress up and go to the … fancy, fancy gala. She can be down in the hood with the boys and still fit in,” Chase said. “A savvy woman uses all of that access to her advantage — and that’s what Queen Latifah is able to do in the show, which makes it fun and exciting.”
Earlier in her career, Chase made history as the first Black woman to ink an overall deal with a major production studio. In 2017, she signed a first-look deal with Universal Television through her eponymous production company. Chase, eager to work with Latifah again, connected with the actress after Fox canceled the musical drama “Star,” in which Latifah was a main character, in 2019. It was Pearlena Igbokwe, also a Black woman and the head of Universal Studio Group, who suggested the pair take on “The Equalizer.”
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For everyone involved, the role “just felt like the right fit” for Latifah, who was in right away, Chase recalled. “Her persona, her brand, everything that she stands for as a woman and as a human being just seemed to fit very well with this person who is there to help people when the system fails them,” Chase said.
Share this articleShareLike Latifah, who starred alongside Washington in the 1999 thriller “The Bone Collector,” Chase has a connection to the Oscar-winning actor: She used to run Washington’s production company (how’s that for Hollywood degrees of separation?). Chase recalls Latifah reaching out to her predecessor to let him know she was taking on the role. But beyond that, Chase and her fellow producers — including creators Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller — set out to introduce a very different version of McCall, “a Black woman, who is strong and fierce, but who is also vulnerable.”
“She can go toe to toe with the most horrible criminals in the world. But her greatest challenge,” Chase says with a laugh, “is standing up to her 15-year-old daughter, which I think is true for a lot of people.”
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Chase thinks it would have been harder to make this version of “The Equalizer” even just a few years ago. She briefly considered leaving the entertainment industry in 2015, but has been encouraged by steps Hollywood has taken on- and off-screen to tell more diverse and inclusive stories in TV and film.
“Five years ago, you were fighting to get women and people of color and women of color director gigs, on, particularly, network television,” Chase said. Now, they’re so in demand, some of the filmmakers Chase and her collaborators wanted to bring on were unavailable for the show’s first season.
“We’ve talked a lot about creating pipelines in all areas of our production to help bring people of color and women into the fold,” Chase said. “It’s an exciting opportunity. And we’re bringing on as many people of color and women as we can.”
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Bringing “The Equalizer” to broadcast — let alone in a pandemic — was in itself a risky move. Chase said the show could have easily ended up on a streaming network.
“At the end of the day, there’s something very satisfying about making a show that everybody can access, that has the potential to really live internationally,” Chase said. “So many things these days are not for network TV, so we decided to take the chance. And thankfully, people have been coming.”
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