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.
the exec’s at cbs are stupid for canceling the best show on tv… I have been deployed and I always enjoy catching up on the unit… I will not watch CBS AGAIN…. NOT EVEN A PLAYOFF GAME.. YOU PEOPLE ALWAYS WANT SOME REALITY B.S. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO SOMETHING THAT IS EXCITING… REALITY IS SO SCRIPTED ITS SAD I HATE TV’S REALITY SHOWS…WHAT A WASTE OF TIME…
Bring it back. Totally disappointed with this. I wanted to see season 5. Bring it back. Damn executives.
I’m extremely disapointed that they cancelled The Unit. It was the one show that me an my husband watched together, an enjoyed! Makes me not want to watch ANY show on CBS! Why not cancel some “lame” show no-one watched, there’s several. I guess I’ll just have to keep watching re-runs, an hope that some “smart” network will pick it up. I would have very much liked to have seen at least one more season.
I watch both Medium and the Unit, and I love them both. Everytime I like a show on CBS, they yank it away. Remember Judging Amy? Jericho? Now the Unit. I am going to stick with the cable series where they never get tired of showing the reruns and skip CBS altogether.
the thing is that it may have only just under 10,000,000 veiwers in the USA but what about the loyal veiwers in other countrys eg austrailia where i hapen to be from and the unit was the only show on tv i have seen every epasode of poor form CBS
I loved The Unit…it was one of the few shows on the air that required some semblance of intelligence to understand. Too many shows are pitched at 6th graders. Sorry, but I relly LIKE a show that pitches the plot to adults. Bad decision, CBS…
Ok. The Unit was the only show on CBS that I watched. You just lost a viewer for your network, CBS!
If FOX owns this show and CBS owns the rights to play the show, why doesn’t FOX buy the rights to play the show and then make the fifth season like everyone wants?
Another stupid move by a network. Just under 10 Million loyal watchers wasn’t enough, never mind either that the cost of each episode was far less than most other shows. But the worst is what did they give us instead that will capture more than 10 million? Well that is the question and so far there is no answer. This was one of the only shows worth watching, well the original CSI is sill limping along, it’s still better than either spin off. The real shame is that we the viewers can’t dump the corporate idiots that keep canceling all… Read more »
BRING IT BACK FINSH WHAT YOU STARTED
SLEUTH has taken on the UNIT. They are currently sponsoring a 72 hour marathon. The Unit will regularly play on Mondays – hopefully, they will be able to air the 5th season. It is a good show.
I don’t make this claim lightly, and I figured maybe this might count in bringing it back on air. But the unit was/is the best show on TV. I am greatly saddened by its dismissal. Maybe it will be picked up by a cable net work like Showtime, or HBO. Is there is a petition to bring back the show?
If u search online you will find a petition to bring back the unit for a fifth and final season!
were is this at so every will know so there can be more people sign it
The Unit is my all-time favorite TV show. I have all the seasons on dvd, it would have been nice to see a show on regular television end properly for once. The Last show I like was “Jericho,” that too was cancelled right when the show was really starting to get interesting. CBS has strunk again, I’m beginning to believe CBS doesn’t support our men and women in uniform. The Unit should try to move their show somewhere but im sure CBS won’t let that happen. Mr. Ryan I think you should start looking at HBO, they always finish there… Read more »
The Unit is definitely one of the better military shows that I’ve seen. How a network is going to cancel it without letting it at least finish well is beyond me…
I am so disappointed that they cancelled this show- As someone mentioned before, I thought this was a clone show, so did not catch onto it until this year. We have all the dvds and watch the repeats when they are one. I hope a smarter network decides to reinstate this show!