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.
WHY DO THEY ALWAYS TAKE OFF THE BEST SHOWS AND PUT
STUPID ONES ON. I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF CBS.LOTS OF PEOPLE LOVE
THE UNIT. TO BAD CBS DOES NOT KNOW WHAT PEOPLE ARE
WATCHING.
This was a real keeper and one of the best shows on TV. How can CBS keep some of the moronic sit coms and lame reality shows and let this well written and acted shows go.
I can not believe “The Unit” cancel. This is wrong. Bring it back.
The Unit was a great show that illustrated both sides of military life, being in the field and back on Post. If for no other reason than it was patriotic, yet fairly realistic for TV and definitely entertaining, CBS should have at least closed out the series in the fifth year instead of leaving the fans hanging from the previous season. Maybe they could do a two hour season finale for us.
BIG MISTAKE….. Only a bean counter who’s life was spent behind a desk would move to take this show off the air. Spec ops vets both military and civilian will really miss this one. I will; ANd will buy the series on dvd.
Another great show gone; replaced by some willly nilly nonsense most likely….
PLEASE BRING IT BACK.. that’s all I can say. This was indeed my favorite show on TV!! Another good one.. Pulled from the TV ranks!! Real freakin bummer
Please bring it back!!
I can not believe that “The Unit” was dropped and “Medium” was saved. “Medium” is the worst show I have ever tried to watch.
Ok, now that that is out. As a fan and person that has served in the forces I give a moment of silence to the number one show in my book.
Ssshhhhhh!!!
I pray you see cbs sees the errors of their ways and bring them back.
This was the best military/tactical show on television that real world military heros could relate to. CBS has disappointed many Soldiers with the cancelation of this show.
What an absolute mistake CBS has made in cancelling THE BEST series on television!
My husband and I eagerly waited for the new season to begin only to find out it had been cancelled.Needless to say we are extremely disappointed!CBS don’t be surprised if you lose veiwers over this one.
How could CBS discard one of the best, closest realistic unclassified military special ops television show in America. This is one of the greatest injustices to those who enjoy our way of life to keep the peace in the world without having to leave our personal home and for those who have lived the life from our past military experiences.
This is an obsolute mistake. I totally agree that there are way too many reality shows on television… If that is what people need to watch to feel complete they seriously need to seek therapy or at least a hobby. This show was finally one that military and police can relate to. I am truely disappointed and sadened with this short sided decisionade by some geek bean counter!
The Unit was a great show. The reason the viewership went down was because of football. Football games would always run late and you could not DVR the Unit because you would only get part of it. This was a big problem for us. I had to DVR the next show and the news so I could make sure I got the whole show. They should have kept the Unit moved it after NCIS and not made NCIS LA!! Try moving things around and not just getting rid of shows. I hate to even try to get invested in any… Read more »
I am in my low 30’s and I know personally around 130 people here I work with that we all watch it. It was the talk about during lunch time that and 24. We all had our own ideas of what the next episode should be about and would talk forever about just played episodes of the UNIT. Now we have nothing but harsh things to say about CBS choice of programs that are still playing junk…… From all of US WE ALL SAY BRING THE SHOW BACK FOR ONE LAST TIE UP SEASON…….PLEASE!!!!!!
I agree with all of the comments above. Best series ever made. My whole family was into the UNIT. It will be greatly missed.