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.”
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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.
Now that SEAL team gonna end, CBS/ Paramount should pick up The Unit. They should crossover eps with SEAL team, Have Trent retire from Devgru. A big terrorist attack happens, he reaches out to Dev like Mike Holland did. Trent ends up in CAG. Sunny joins in couple deployments with CAG Team leader Mac Gearhert, now that Dennis Haysbert is to old. He retires and Joins the CIA
I’m very late in coming to the UNIT party but appreciate it all the same, have today 25/10/2023 or as Americans would say 10/ 25/ 2023 just finished viewing the last episode of season 4, great TV thanks very much!
We want more seasons for the Unit, and for Jericho
Just finished season 4. Haven’t had a show that had my attention like that since gems like House, and Chicago (PD, Fire, Med). Bring the show back for the season finale, we’re all waiting.
Stupidest thing I ever seen
Everytime a good show is on it gets cancelled
We are re-watching it for the 3rd time. Why is it the best shows are cancelled for stupid, gag style, unscripted programing? Is it the watchers are receding in intelligence and so wanting lower level (maybe grade 3) shows, or the programmers lack of be willing to spend the money?? Bring back shows that are worth our intellect!
Please bring it back I and my husband love the show it most keep going
My husband and I enjoyed The Unit and hate it was cancelled
I enjoyed watching the Unit it was a great show