Broadcast every third week, the series is a follow-up continuation of the three feature films that preceded its release.

[1] Because it was to be aired on over-the-air television, CBS felt that the narrative of Shaft needed to be toned down as compared to the original three films.

Contemporary analysts suggested that since Shaft and Hawkins appealed to vastly different audience bases, alternating them only served to confuse fans of both series, giving neither one the time to build up a large viewership.

[2][3][4][5] A further contributor to its ratings failure was competition from other crime drama series starring African-American private investigators, NBC's Tenafly and ABC's Get Christie Love!.

[6] Richard Roundtree himself publicly expressed his disdain for the small-screen version of Shaft.