Much to the dismay of the show’s loyal followers, The Unit was cancelled by CBS in May. The series’ viewership had declined in its later years but, despite being preempted several times, still attracted 9.67 million viewers in season four.
The Unit was supposedly being seriously considered to continue in first-run syndication but the deal didn’t work out, likely because of production costs. Sadly, while the military drama and Dennis Haysbert, Regina Taylor, Robert Patrick, and Scott Foley will be around in syndication for years to come, we won’t be seeing season five of The Unit.
It turns out that the writers had a full plan for year five which Executive Producer Shawn Ryan was expecting to be the show’s last. He pitched the storyline ideas to the CBS execs but ultimately they weren’t interested.
At the recent TCA press tour, Ryan shared with The Futon Critic what would have happened. He said, “It was going to be a whole new show in the sense that we were going to be training some young people, Bob was going to be training some people for a whole new organization. Jonas was finally going to be seeing his run end.”
 Loading ... |
Ryan continued, “The final season was going to be, I figured the fifth season was going to be the last… It was going to be a long, sort of final mission for Jonas. He’s not medically cleared, Mac has to go in and sort of change the medical records so that Jonas can keep on [going on missions]. We had a whole thing planned, it was going to be good.”
Of the cancellation, Ryan points to CBS’ last-minute decision to save NBC’s discarded Medium series. If things had been reversed and The Unit “had been owned by Paramount and Medium had been owned by 20th Century Fox, we’d be making the fifth season of The Unit right now. I don’t know how else to say that.”
What do you think? Do the plans for season five sound like a good way for the military drama to finish?
Image courtesy CBS.
Newer and/or Related Articles
-
TV Show Obituaries: 84 Series from the 2008 – 2009 Season that are Cancelled or Ending
May 27, 2009 -
2008 – 2009 Cancelled TV Shows: Eight CBS Series That Won’t Be Back for 2009 – 2010
May 23, 2009 -
The Unit: After Cancellation, Producers Get Some Good News
May 19, 2009 -
The Unit: CBS Cancels Dennis Haysbert Series, No Season Five!
May 19, 2009 -
CBS Announces Their 2008-09 Schedule. Who’s Been Cancelled?
May 14, 2008 -
Moonlight: CBS Cancels Vampire Drama, No Season Two
May 13, 2008 -
TV News Briefs: The Unit, Old Christine, The Mole, Stargate: SG-1 and Quincy, M.E.
Apr 4, 2008 -
CBS Renews 11 TV Series for the 2008 – 2009 Season, What About the Rest?
Feb 15, 2008 -
The Unit
Jan 23, 2008 -
{ 782 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Make season 5 please!
Robert
Sweden
BRING BACK THE UNIT!!!!!!! One of the best shows ever; Better than “MASH”
Long live Jonas….. Bring the UNIT back
This is a good tv series. I think that if you are going to cancel the show at least let us see the final season of it. The 5th season was going to be the last one anyway, so why not let it finish out. Alot of military and prior military personal like the show and they can relate to it on a certain level.
cant they change the ownership to Fox theatre if that wuld give us the 5th one or 9million viewers can make it happen, if we have to raise for the series…lol
อยากภาค 5 มากเลยครับ
Me and my Husband were travelling around the world, and we would not go out some nights after dinner so we could go back to our hotel room and watch the unit!! it was that good.
We were so disapointed when we came home to search for the 5th season, and discovered that they cancelled it…!
I just finish season 4…it’s too bad to hear that CBS cancelled the show…I hope they change their minds because the unit is one helluva great tv show love em…
The network owed it to loyal followers of the prgram to provide a satisfying wrapup of the series. Even a special miniseries to tie up loose ends, and give fans something to remember.
I just finished the fourth season and was looking for the next one…and I was very disapointed. I do not know the ratings in the U.S. or anything but this is no way to end a show….shame on CBS for the betrayal of all the followers and fans worldwide!
I totally agree. Was a one of a kind show that brought back The A-Team kinda feel to television. I’ve just watched all 4 seasons on Netflix and I’m very disappointed to know it ended with so much more character development still to be done. It was long, but felt like I could have watched a few more seasons. They brought Whiplash in for 8 episodes? Another face in season 5 would have been good. Maybe kill off the General and make Jonas the HNIC. Another girl? A bad president? lol. Like prison break, they had a good storyline boiling with the guys being on the run, but none of them used all that money that was put aside “just in case”. Would have loved to see them on the run doing freelance stuff for an entire season. Anyway. I’m tired. Bring the boys back. Peace. (and war!)
How did you see it on Netflix? I’ve looked for it for years on there and it still isn’t listed.
Definetly on Netflix all 4 seasons.
after recently reading the prospective storyline for season 5 on wikipedia.
i’ll now say that I have to pass.
a 1 hour 2 episode finale where the team leaves on a high is now my preference.
this show is the best I see evreybody watches this show in 2 weeks or 5 weeks I have watched all the seasons in 3 days and now I wanted to find out about season 5 and I found out there isn’t going to be one I am very dissapointed they did the same thing with the show las vegas its bullshit they keep on cancelling shows while there are enough people watching it and than at least make a good end and not a bullshit end like they did with these 2 shows
amsterdam, Netherlands
← Previous Comments