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.
I’m a Soldier in Afghan. and I watch the show on cd’s every day it keeps me motivated and grounded. They need to put more seasons out there I remember JONAS from the movie Navy Seals he was born for the military.
My husband is on his 3rd deployment…I can see how this would motivate any soldier. Shoot…it motivates me to be a better Army spouse. Way better than Army wives!
i love the unit…i didt get a chance to watch it on tv becaus eof my work schedul but i ordered every episode on netflix and watched it religiously!! its a fantastic show and i will be very disappointed if there isnt a 5th season. my husband is in the military and he loves this show and hopes there will be a fifth season as well!!
Everybody sign this petition!!! We want the fifth temp of The unit!!! let them know what we want!
http://www.petitiononline.com/Unit5/petition.html
6500 Signs till now.. increase that number!
I have looked at websites in 09 to see if anything was going to happen and maybe they would bring the best TV series back. What they dont get from their statistics is that probably they could add another 50% on to the viewers i dont even watch TV they dont take into the stats the people like me who dont want to watch it on their schedule and download the episodes after the air date i only seen 2 eps on TV maybe then i started to download and still have all 4 seasons. Shame it didnt have the… Read more »
CBS…….. What the Hell are you thinking? Well, maybe I should say “You are Not Thinking”……….. THE UNIT was the best drama series on television. If it failed in “your” ratings, it’s because of the stupid time slot you put it in. My husband and I were dedicated veiwers and believe me….., we saw all your advertisements and I’m sure we bought a lot of the items advertised. I don’t believe for one second this series was cancelled because of the fan base. CBS just wants to replace it with another CSI or silly reality show. I don’t think these… Read more »
I am the proud daughter of a Vietnam Vet. This program is very true to military life as it gets. There were good plots, writing and superb acting. This show depicted the ones left at home to raise the kids and worry, but also what the men go through. This show was proving to people we are proud of our service personnel. Leave it to the upper execs to pull a decent program. They are so far from reality, they no longer know what it is. Kathy
Why not just say screw CBS and find another network??? In my opinion this is one of, if not the best series on television. If CBS wants to run 3 CSIs, none which are really all that great and one liners are actually very cheesey to the point that it demeanors the the show overall. Or if any of you have seen NCIS LA, omg what a horrible show. LL Cool J and Chris Odonnel… naval cops… military based action series… and mostly unknown or dead careered supporting cast, who the hell thought this would be a good show to… Read more »
The only way they would bring it bac is if there were enough sales in DVD to make them bring it back. Also writing to CBs might help.
Having run rather large companies, tremendous planning should go into every major change to operations and end results. It is apparent that CBS “C Line” management specialize in 6 gun management. Most executives learn by errors and mistakes in their career as they rise up through the ranks. It appears that the CBS Board employs C Line executives to accomplish a learning curve after the fact. The Unit was one of the better drama series on television in spite of its lopsided time slot and grossly ineffective marketing. While I suppose it was a bit more expensive to produce, I… Read more »
i really enjoyed watching the show i was really looking foward to season five they should have gave a final episode, one that gives us closure. it would be nice if they mad a miniseries to close it out, you know 2 or 3 episodes on sundays about 2hrs long each.
and what about dvd sales if the dvd sales are like that then just put it on dvd. ill buy it i know a lot of guys that would we all watched it while we was in iraq.
dudes, I have seen almost every show and series that ever exsisted. You name it, i’ve seen it. Surely The Unit is one of the better non-commercialised ( like prison break or lost) shows I’ve ever seen. WTF is wrong with CBS for cancelling this? I do not understand. Take Heroes for example: It reached it’s climax at the end of seaseon 2, but still there is season 3 part 1 and 2 and season 4. when the ratings start going down around season 5 they’ll probably cancel it and leave heroes fans hanging without an ending. At least have… Read more »
Bring it back…… It was the only show my husband and I watched religously and we are in our 20s. Very VERY good show in the midst of all of these crappy half hour things that they claim are high raters. It’s because there’s nothing else to watch.
the unit was the best show on tv i watched it every sunday bring it back, way better show than csi la that show sucks
Tell you what Shawn Ryan, see if you can sell this to another tv station and make a few more seasons, at least two more. This tv show is truly a great military drama-honor, duty, selfless service all the things we hold true in the Army. if CBS cares more about the Medium over the Unit then they made a critical mistake. I don’t care if the show aired on spike tv. I just want to see closure with the show. Why don’t CBS add another reality show since all are lame anyway. reality shows are really pathetic anyway. Most… Read more »
BRING IT BACK