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 Unit was one of my favorite shows of all time. I would have liked if they even agreed to do a short 13 episode season 5 to at least give the audience some closure to the show. The way it ended was so lame to me. Maybe another network can pick up the show to give us one or two more seasons. CBS has same old bunch of shows. The Unit was actually the only show I watched on that network. Go figure.
Plss bring the unit back..
i WILL NO LONGER WATCH CBS IT HAS NOW BEEN DELETED FROM MY CHANNEL LISTING ON MY TV THATS CRAP THE UNIT HELPED A LOT OF US SOLDIER THAT KNOW SHOW THE REST WHY WE ARE THE WAY WE ARE AND THAT IT WAS ALL FOR TTHE GOOD OF OUR U.S.A AND NOW WE LOSE IT BECAUSE INSTEAD OF 100MILLION CBS WANTS 1 BILLION U U HAVE NO HONOR CBS
the unit is a must for prime time tv the story line for season 5 sounds like a great way for jonas to get out of the unit and go and get his wife besides its mack ‘s time go 303rd
Surprised FOX was not smart enough to pick it up.
As the wife of an Army soldier myself, I really enjoyed this show. It was a nice, allbeit dramatized, look at what military families sometimes go through. I just want to take a minute and say “Hats OFF” to the writers, actors, directors, etc. It was a good run…wish it could have been SOOOO much longer! So disappointed to not get just ONE more season to finish it off at least… I guess I’ll just have to tie my own loose ends for these characters.
My husband and I are very disappointed seeing such a great quality show come to an end. It is hard to find great shows like this. I have never watched medium and could care less for it. If the producers and tv stations have any common sense and know what a great quality show is then they will do whatever they need to do to bring The Unit back and keep it running for a few more seasons, if CBS or whomever wants to retain their loyal viewers then they need to keep the good shows running and the cr
The Unit is one of the best written shows in over 50 years. People stopped watching TV during the writers strike and The Unit was on too late for most people to watch. My husband had to go to work and the show was on later than I could stay awake. I am currently buying the series (1 year series every 3 months). They are kind of expensive but worth every penny.
“The Unit” we miss you, please come back! And thank you for a great show.
I hope the gods find a way to making season five because I don’t think that the series came to a final end in season 4. There is a lot more mileage to get out of the Unit and it would be a shame to stop in mid stroke. The way season 4 ended I automatically expected another season.
I have watched all seasons several times now and have totally enjoyed them all; it would be nice to see more.
CBS the customer is always right MAKE SEASON 5……………………….
tMike
CBS, Fox, or whoever owns the rights now need to wake up and bring The Unit back. How can you keep on making shows like that crappy Medium. Bring back The Unit damn it!
This was one of the best shows TV had on and they go and cancel it. Yet, they keep creating reality shows, or so-called reality shows, that are just awful! Can’t imagine the ilk that watch this crap, I don’t get the logic. This show dealt with real issues, in this time of war. Not issues we like to think about or issues that make us feel all warm and fuzzy. It does seem to me, that it may have been too much information for the american public to stomach. I am so sick of this Political correct fad, why… Read more »
please bring best show back
The Unit has been cancelled. Visit http://renewtheunit.com/ for news and updates. Sign the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/renewtheunit/ if you want to see it back on TV.
Thank You.
Renew The Unit!
loved all four season must bring the unit back for season 5 and who knows how many more
I watched the Unit always wanting more. Now I have to watch re-runs. Medium was
not that great so scraping the Unit was a poor choice. Hope CBS or ANY NETWORK would reconsider this program and bring it back as first run. It’s clearly missed as are
it’s characters.