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 not run a final season. Brilliant show and storylines. I am getting fed up of this network cancelling decent shows before the end.
Please bring back the Unit.
I love The Unit. I have watched the seasons so many time. Please bring back The Unit. 🙂
please bring back “the unit”
It was the best military. It looks at military life to include the family and everything that goes on in the military. The political posturing and black ops was on point given the security restrictions..
My husband and I watch the unit I have all the seasons. I bought them for his birthday. We are only 2 people, but we never thought it would end. The way it ended with molly leaving and grey getting married only made matters or our suspense worse. I believe us as viewers deserve to know and watch more. Please bring back the unit
But what about Charles Grey? last episode you see him getting married which will end in his expulsion from the team
Is The Unit on regular American Netflix?
I have been watching all the episodes of the unit on Netflix UK and I am absolutely gutted there’s no season 5 what a cliff hanger
Me too , come on get it sorted
I love the unit been watching it on netflix uk, was not sure i would like it at first as military programmes and films i dont usually like but the unit catered for all with the wives and their secrets and obviously the boys with theirs. I am gutted i wont see a season 5 even after all this time surely there is room to repeat the unit including season 5 as no other military dramas at the moment.
Sorry they didn’t think ahead Ito give closure. It was a great series and it left us hanging ,as to what happened to whom!
I still show people the show… I have the box set….. was highly disappointed.
It is the best series of my liking yet, it hurts knowing I am not gonna see Jonas in action, Tom in command and Bob with his wife Kim and Kids…. so saaaad…. do something please Ryan
I have bought the box set “the unit” it is fantastic. Missed a lot on my British site. I cannot believe there isn’t going to be another season. It is brilliant. Masses of action. I have told loads of friends to try it. Very sad to hear it is cancelled. You should offer it to another site.
Recently started to watch the series and just could not stop. So dissapointed to find out it was cancelled!