The fans of The Unit collectively had the rug pulled out from under us today; the CBS drama was officially cancelled and will not return for a fifth season.
Is there one exact reason why Season 5 is a no-go? At the most basic level, it can be inferred that The Unit wasn’t pulling its weight in the ratings department to justify another go-round. It’s average viewership was somewhere about 9 million, but that tended to skew on the older side, a group less attractive to advertisers. And a lot of its performance issues could probably be chalked up to the fact that the network did minimal promotion, shipped it to a late Sunday night slot and aired new episodes sporadically. It’s damn near impossible for a show to get any kind of traction with that airing schedule.
You’ll also hear that the show cost a pretty penny to make and, on top of that, was produced by another TV Studio (Twentieth Century Fox, with CBS licensing the rights to air it). With a high caliber cast and crew (that all probably wanted raises as the show matured) and very ambitious on-location shooting, each episode cost a small fortune to bring to the tube each week.
And it’s a shame too, because The Unit was quite a unique show for network television today. In its stead will probably be some mindless drivel; either some ridiculous reality competition or another forensics crime show.
But that’s it: no more awesome tactical missions. No more homefront drama. We’ll never get to see any resolution between Jonas and Molly. We’ll never get to see new leadership of the squad as Colonel Ryan was promoted without a successor. There was so much more story to tell and a 5th season could’ve served to creatively end the series, the right way. But those 69 episodes will live on in syndication (rumor has it) and DVD so at least we’ll be able to relive the good times the show brought us.
It would be childish to claim this act to be unfair, but this little ranting will help me through the ‘denial’ stage of grieving. A solid thanks goes out to the cast and crew of the show, who brought us one of the most exciting and engaging shows we’ll ever see. RIP The Unit (2006 – 2009)
