We’ve suspected the bad news for months but now, it’s been confirmed that the Brotherhood series has indeed been cancelled by Showtime.
Brotherhood revolves around the lives of two brothers in an Irish-American neighborhood in Rhode Island. Tommy Caffee (Jason Clarke) is a family man and local politician while his brother Michael (Jason Isaacs) is a professional criminal who’s involved with the Irish mob. Others in the cast of this gritty drama include Kevin Chapman, Annabeth Gish, Fiona C. Erickson, Brian Scannell, Kerry O’Malley, Fionnula Flanagan, Madison Garland, Billy Smith, Frank Ridley, Matt Servitto, Ethan Embry, Brian F. O’Byrne, Tina Benko, and John Fiore.
The series debuted on Showtime on July 9, 2006 and, despite some very positive reviews, Brotherhood didn’t attract a lot of viewers; just 450,000. Showtime nevertheless renewed the show for a second season — albeit one made up of only 10 episodes. They started airing in September of 2007 and the premiere brought in just 370,000 viewers.
Brotherhood won a Peabody Award in 2007 and continued to garner critical attention. Situated behind Dexter, the show attracted its best ratings with 650,000 viewers on November 18, 2007. The pay-for-view cable channel continued to stand behind the show and renewed it for a third season.
Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said, “Brotherhood is one of our shining hours at Showtime — a drama series that is among the highest-quality shows offered anywhere on television, and we’re proud to keep it firmly in our portfolio.” In November 2008, the season three debut attracted just 305,000 viewers.
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Earlier this year, rumors started to circulate that Brotherhood wouldn’t be returning for a fourth season. Showtime execs wouldn’t say one way or the other and the actors, as well as viewers, were kept in the dark as to the show’s future.
In January, Greenblatt said, “It’s a show that we love, and we’re just trying to figure out what the future might be. We have a finite number of slots for shows, and we’re in that difficult place of trying to make that decision.”
Lost actress Flanagan told EOnline in February, “We’re on hiatus, and we’re waiting to hear what Showtime’s pleasure is about that. It will all have to be balanced with what else Showtime has on its roster for this next year. Usually the shooting season was the summer, so I should imagine that we’ll know soon.”
The show’s future began to look especially grim when Australian actor Clarke was cast in U.S. Attorney, a new drama series for CBS. Though the show was not picked up for Fall, it may end up on the network’s midseason schedule.
Now, the speculation about Brotherhood can finally be put to rest. Showtime and Paramount Home Entertainment have officially announced the DVD release of season three and the title is Brotherhood – The Final Season. Things don’t get any plainer than that. The set will be released on September 22nd and can be purchased now at a pre-release discount
Some have expressed that the third season finale gave closure to the series. Tommy became the speaker of the house and Michael left Providence once again. Do you agree, or are you just left wanting another visit to The Hill?
Image courtesy Showtime.
We just finished the last episode and we had a feeling it was the finally. Then I read today that is all she wrote. Tommy is house speaker, Michael leave Rhode Island again. This show was so special, so well written and one of the few that used real businesses and locations in and around Providence. Its tragic that this top program gets the ax but a show like Two and a Half Men can stay on season after season!
It’s (always) about the money. Perhaps Showtime didn’t do enough to expose “Brotherhood”. I was a faithful viewer and am very disappointed to hear that it has been cancelled. It was one of the best.
First Shotime cancelled “Huff”, which was the best series Shotime ever had. Now they have cancelled ‘Brotherhood” as well? I don’t know what those people are thinking over there but I am not going to keep watching Shotime in the future. The only decent shows they have left are “Californication” and ‘Weeds”. I guess I’ll just wait for those shows to come out on DVD and watch them for free from my local library. I will not continue to pay for weak programming that rarely air good movies and cancels the best series that makes you want to watch Shotime… Read more »
This show had the best acting and writing on television. What a shame. Ethan Embry was a revelation in this series. What a tragedy they didn’t give a real shot. Where were the viewers? This show was phenomenal.
ALWAYS HAVE TO CANCEL THE BEST SHOWS……AND LEAVE THE TRASH ON..ITS B.S.
Brotherhood was a fantastic show!!!
IDIOTS
One of the best shows on TV next to Dexter. Someone made the wrong move to cancel .
So sorry to see it go it was fantastic. You could bring it back!!!
Brotherhood blows The Soprano’s away I love the show and think its a shame we cant keep it on the air
One of the all time great TV series. Virtually perfect casting. The picture you get is perfectly balanced with the gritty reality of life itself–tough, uncertain, yet needing to be preserved.
I loved the writing. It was much more compelling than HBOs Sopranos. Every single character was I thought well developed. I would seriously like to see the producers reconsider and bring the show back much like HBO did with The Sopranos. The intrigue would be there for me . I am really disappointed.
I think showtime has made a big mistake by cancelling this show. I thought it was better than the Sapranos and if it was advertised better it could have had a run as long as the Sopranos. At least we still have Dexter unless you plan on cancelling that show next. Showtime better watch out because these network cable stations are starting to turn out better shows without the extra monthly cost to the consumer. If it was not for Dexter I would definitely say goodbye to showtime. Keep up the good work fox and amc.
how can you KEEP a show like Crash running and CANCEL a subperb show like Brotherhood?
SHO TIME U SUCK FOR CANCELING THE SHOW BROTHERHOOD IT WAS THE NEXT BEST THING TO ” DEXTER”..LET IT AT LEAST HAVE A FINALLY..IDIOTS
Brotherhood is one of the best acted and best written dramas on television. If the hiatis was not so long and it was better advertised, it might attract more viewers.
I really hated the news about cancellation. But then agian I love the show and now it has ended perfectly. Everything a big circle. In a way I like this approach and yes maybe they should do this more. From the beginning make a max. amount of episodes to tell the story in. This doesn’t make the show weak. But keeps it even stronger because you long for more. Keep them hungry for more that to me is perfect storytelling. Odd comparison look at certain japanese anime. 26 episodes no more no less, what do you have in the ending… Read more »
Brotherhood to me, beat out the Sopranos and was the best Mob Drama to come in a long time. It’s a real shame Showtime canceled this show, actually they couldn’t have been more wrong. Huge mistake!