CBS’ “The Equalizer,” a fifth-season revival of a 1980s drama starring Queen Latifah as a mysterious guardian angel, is the big winner in USA TODAY’s exclusive Save Our Shows poll.
You’ve made your voice heard: “Equalizer” dominated the 28th annual poll, which asked readers which of 17 endangered broadcast-network comedies and dramas deserved another season, and which should face the chopping block. About 47% of voters want the show to return for a sixth season, the highest percentage of any show, followed by NBC’s “The Irrational,” starring Jesse L. Martin as a case-solving behavioral-science professor, which 44% want to keep.
At the other extreme, Fox’s animated comedy “The Great North,” the same network’s new Denis Leary military sitcom “Going Dutch” and NBC’s “Lopez vs. Lopez” earned the lowest support among the 17 series, with 60% of voters – the most of any series – wanting to drop “Lopez,” which stars comedian George Lopez and his daughter, Mayan.
“Lopez” is unlikely to continue, while the fates of two other series on the poll was decided after it was published on April 2: ABC’s latest Tim Allen comedy, “Shifting Gears,” which debuted in January, has been renewed for a second season. It placed third in the poll, as 34% of voters wanted it back. And CBS’ “Poppa House,” another multigenerational family sitcom starring Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr., was canceled after one season (just 23% of poll respondents wanted it back, while 53% hoped to bury it).
Networks will make their final choices between May 7 and June 30, as they announce schedules for the TV 2025-26 season and decide which shows to cancel.
More than 36,000 readers participated in this year’s poll. Save Our Shows has been credited by NBC with “saving” sci-fi drama “Timeless,” first for a second season and the next year, for a finale moive, after it led two consecutive polls. Another top vote-getter, “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” was renewed for a second season on NBC despite low ratings and then for a Christmas movie to wrap up the series on the Roku Channel.
The poll returned from a hiatus in 2024, when monthslong actors and writers’ strikes in Hollywood disrupted the rollout of new and returning shows and delayed renewal decisions.
In 2023, rescue drama “9-1-1,” then on Fox, led the poll, but was canceled due to cost concerns; ABC, owned by Disney, which produces the series, snapped it up, and this fall is planning a new spinoff set in Nashville. Other top winners were ABC’s “The Good Doctor” (renewed for one more season) and “Alaska Daily” (canceled), and CBS’ “S.W.A.T.,” which was renewed but canceled this year.
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