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.
the show was interesting. the problem was no lasting power because the characters were so unlikable. you can root for characters that keep doing wrong if you like them but all of these guys were just bad, no redeeming quality at all.
There should have definitely been a season 4. I GUESS you can call that a bit of a small closure but we never got to see Michael & Tommy hash things out. Like move passed their differences. We dont know what happened with kath, or colin, where or how they might be going along with their lives? Tommy’s WIFE I’m sure didn’t completely enjoy Tommy being speaker. There’s a lot left undone. And I grew a bit close to these characters. I love the location and the vibe and no, there’s no closure here. I guess we received a cheap… Read more »
Dang. I just binge watched the first 3 after having surgery and being bedridden. Excellent show. Left me begging for and now looking up a release date for the 4th season and I found this article. What a bummer.
Yea I cant believe it either. There’s no closure here
Showtime needs to provide season 4. I know many will watch it.
Need season 4!!
I Feel that this is totally a rip off to the watchers and dedicated people to watch a show night after night and then end it with no ending . All in hopes that they may have another show coming . There was no planned ending show and it ended with nothing and with no substance as to what had happened. The producers or show time could care less about there watchers and left the ending so messed up with not only no ending but no pause to the episode suggesting a next ending show. Those poor actors. They wanted… Read more »
Amen!!
Show was GREAT! So upset it’s over!!! BRING IT BACK! Tired of these racist stupid political weird shows post 2010 it makes me sick! Cmon showtime! Do it again!
I Am propped in to it just watched season two to go makes em please make some more seasons up for those what love it like I do
I just finished watching the last episode of season 3 and I so sad! As I see many others are as well! I really enjoyed this bc I love, love, love mob type movies and shows, and they just don’t make em much anymore. It did leave us hanging and I agree with another person, it was poorly advertised, and not a lot if ppl have showtime so wouldn’t know about the show bc if that. Give us a movie that wraps it all up, or bring it back! We all will watch!
Just watched all 3 seasons on now tv in the uk and I can’t believe there is no 4 please explain what you were thinking when you cancelled it ? This is one of the best storie lines I’ve seen for a while and it really grips you because there is more story than just violence it’s a fantastic story line please please sack the person who cancelled it
I wasn’t a subscriber during the first 3 seasons of “Brotherhood.” I just finished watching them. The writing and actors were superb–as good as any other drama on TV. When are the commercial and cable networks, especially the commercial ones, going to realize that ratings should not be the only barometer of success?
We’ve just finished watching all 3 seasons of Brotherhood it was excellent, can’t believe they have not made another series.
We live in the U.K. this would definitely be a huge success here if it had been shown here. We watched it on Netflix, we couldn’t believe there was no follow up to the last season lots of loose ends to follow up on this great programme someone has made a great mistake!!
canNOT believe this series was cancelled. Found it on Amazon 1 month ago. Have watched all 3 seasons.what was the thought process behind the cancellation. SHOWTIME get a new advertisement/public relations agent. So many miss out for lack of knowledge of this show’s existence. For the very least finish season 3 and tie up all the loose strings, there were so many left it might as well have been shag carpet! What happened to Colin,Kath, Micheal, Michael and Tommy’s mom? Ave the investigator friend, his whole existence on the show was nullified by the last episode! Wake up and redo… Read more »
Executives of Showtime: What were you thinking about when the decision was made to cancel Brotherhood??!! Make the executive decision to bring back Brotherhood!!! PLEASE!!! The series story lines were left incomplete which made room for more episodes. I’m sure your loyal viewers will appreciate the show returning.
I just finished all 3 seasons in a couple days on hulu and to me if they had even a thought they wouldn’t of had a 4th season they should of just ended it there and made the last episode a lot better I love this show so much but in my opinion the last episode ruined it what happens with Colin what happen with Michael what about gigs i thought Thomas wanted to get out of politics so many questions was just left unanswered