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.
Everyone Ring CBS phone off the hook, until they bring it back.Or lets just have a blackout against CBS.BRING IT BACK!!|!!!!|!!!!!
This was my husbands and my favorite show.It wason TV at a time when our country really needed to see how great our military women and men are(and there families).I believe everyone could relate and get lost in this show.I just wonder how politics played a roll in getting this show taken off tv.Much like Jericho.Remember it?
9.67 Million Viewers!! What is that, about 3MM more than the viewership of CBS Evening News with Katie Couric? http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/ratings-cbs-evening-news-in-prime-time-averages-65-million-viewers/
This was also a date night watch for my husband and me. He liked the high drama, and I was drawn in, as well. I’m like so many others who wonder what ar ethe folks thinking at CBS. The stuff that is too silly to watch get to hang around, and shows with substance get axed. At the very least, they could have let The Unit die an honorable death and let its fans prepare for that death. It is no wonder tha cable is getting increased viewership.
My husband and I are not military, but this show was the one and only show that we LOVED! We had a Sunday night “date” to sit down together and watch the show regardless of whatever else was going on. It was a great show with great actors and I could see it going on for many more seasons. Why not cut back on all the crime/mystery shows a bit and put a little more “real” reality back on TV? This was a good all-American show. Bring it back and keep it going!!
CBS executives: I am curious why your would pull The Unit of all shows off the air? Is CSI: Las Vegas really doing so well in ratings that it actually beat out The Unit? Because I can tell you that I stopped watching CSI: Las Vegas at least two years ago, and won’t watch it again since Grissom has left. My boyfriend is former military we watch the show every week no matter the time it showed we were religious in watching, how do you take a show away like this? This show made my boyfriend feel proud for serving… Read more »
You know I don’t understand how 9+ million views is a down slope on the popularity of a show. I could understand if the show was cancelled because the cast wanted to persue other ventures, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. This really makes me mad because this company could care less about the views, especially when they keep stupid reality shows like The Amazing Race. I don’t know about anyone else but I would like to know the real reason CBS tried to sabotage The Unit by putting in a time slot like Sunday at 10pm? It… Read more »
I still watch the reruns and Unit shows on line and saturday evenings. The Unit needs more years, our military is still going and so is criminal minds and Law and Order SVU. I surfe through the chanels just about every afternoon amd evening, some of the old rerun stuff and silly programs out there, what are they thinking? When I first seen the Unit1,1., I was impressed as a first run show. After the first episode I expected the story line to slowly dieoff like so many do, the idea to out do the last one thinking up unrealistic… Read more »
This is the only show on CBS worth watching. When the show was moved to the 10PM time slot (dumb move on CBS’s part) I would wait for the show to come on regardless of the time. Not only did I watch every episode, I also bought the dvds. Unless they bring THE UNIT back, I will not watch anything on CBS……not even the local weather report!!!
WHAT THE?!!! THEY CANCELLED MY SHOW?!!! I DON’T KNOW HOW THE STATISTICS GO, BUT DO THEY ONLY GO BY WHEN IT’S AIRED ON TV OR……… GRANT IT I WON’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE, BUT I’M PRETTY SURE IT GOES THE SAME FOR OTHERS IN MY SITUATION. I’M IN THE MILITARY AND I ENJOY WATCHING THIS SHOW (THE BOOK WAS GREAT BTW). SADLY I AM CONSTANTLY DEPLOYED AND DON’T GET TO WATCH THE SHOW WHEN IT AIRS, BUT WHEN I AM HOME THAT’S LIKE A THINGS FOR ME AND MY WIFE TO DO……… WATCH “THE UNIT” IT ALSO HELPS ON EXPLAINING CERTAIN… Read more »
I am very very upset that The Unit will not be returning. My husband and I discussed a few days ago that when ever there is a good show that we like, it always gets cancelled. BRING BACK THE UNIT. We need to know how things were going to be worked out between Molly and Jonas. It is a great show, and shows what our military is willing to do to keep the citizens of the great United States safe from terrorists..
That was terrible! My husband and I had been anticipating the Unit, season 5 premiere. It seems to me that CBS had already given up on the Unit last year. It was ridiculous how I had to flipped between the time it was suppose to air and the time it actually did air. I mean it didn’t even start at a standard time slot. For example, every show either started at the top of the hour (10:00) or the middle of the hour (10:30). CBS had this show airing in, for example, a 10:22 or 10:48 time slot. I mean… Read more »
10 million viewers and still gets cancelled, c’mon, medium had fewer viewers, 60 minutes gets 10 million, go figure that one
I cannot believe that CBS would cancel such a good series. For what, to pick up Medium? They already have Ghost Whisper and now this. We always watched on Sunday night and looked forward to The Unit. Now we will never know what happens.. Come on CBS< BRING IT BACK PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We also bought the DVR for the sole reason of recording The Unit on Sunday nights (along with recording the shows before and after it so not to miss anything because of the inconsistent times.) As for the age group they say is watching it what do they expect with that time slot? But did they factor in the people who watch it recorded- In our house alone are a 23 year old male, a 27 year old female, and a 50 year old male who all tune in religiously. (We’ve also had a 17 year old female sit and… Read more »