‘The Equalizer’ Starring Queen Latifah To Premiere After Super Bowl On CBS
Queen Latifah‘s new drama ‘The Equalizer’ is set to premiere at a date and time with no equal—immediately following the Super Bowl!
A reimagining of the 1980s series, ‘The Equalizer’ stars Latifah as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. McCall may seem like 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.
‘The Equalizer’ premieres after Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT (time approximate after post-game coverage) on CBS, before moving to its regular Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT time slot the following week. Chris Noth, Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Adam Goldberg, Liza Lapira, and Laya DeLeon Hayes also star in the one-hour series.
Queen Latifah brings her quiet confidence and don’t-mess-with-me vibe to this contemporary TV thriller. An ex-CIA officer, McCall is finished with a rigged system where only the privileged get justice.In the premiere, Robyn helps a young girl who’s on the run, framed for a crime and watching her future slip away.
“We see so many people with money and power doing whatever the hell they want,” Latifah says. “You watch a story on the news and say, ‘Someone should do something about that.’ That’s Robyn McCall.”
Edward Woodward played Robert McCall in the original series; two films (2014, 2018) based on it starred Denzel Washington. “This is exciting for girl power, especially in this time where we see a lot of imbalance,” says Latifah, who notes women are working at every level behind the scenes.
Latifah loves the juxtaposition of a woman who is aces professionally but perplexed by her teen daughter (Laya DeLeon Hayes). “Robyn is not a superhero. She’s strong, cool, skilled, tough but empathetic — and completely thrown off balance when dealing with her 15-year-old.” Robyn’s Aunt Vi (Lorraine Toussaint) helps.
“Like Queen Latifah, Robyn McCall is a force of nature — smart, charismatic, badass — and we can’t wait to introduce her as the new face of justice in ‘The Equalizer’,” co-creators and executive producers Andrew W. Marlowe and Terri Edda Miller told ET in an interview.