In June 2009, it was announced that Primeval had been cancelled. However, by September 2009, it was revealed that two more series of Primeval would be produced.

Cancellation

In May 2009, The Sun had reported that Primeval was to be axed due to ITV's recent £2.7 billion loss. ITV strongly denied this, with a spokesperson stating, "It's not true, it's not going to be axed, it just hasn't been recommissioned and it is not unusual to wait for a series to run before considering recommission." However, in June 2009, ITV confirmed that Primeval had been axed. On 15 June 2009, ITV announced that they had cancelled the show and that there would not be a fourth series. At the same time, it was suggested that the production team would attempt to keep "Primeval alive in other ways." An ITV spokesman has said, "After three very successful series of Primeval there are no plans at the present time for it to return to ITV. High-quality drama remains a key part of the ITV schedule although our current focus is on post-watershed productions." A likely reason for Primeval's cancellation was the fact that ITV had been suffering from severe financial troubles during 2009, reporting a £105 million half-year loss.

Revival

However, on 29 September 2009, it was announced that two new series of the show will be produced for transmission in 2011, keeping all the cast of Series 3. This was made possible by a cost-sharing deal between ITV, Watch, BBC America and ProSieben. The new deal means a seven-part Series 4 airs on ITV1 before being repeated on Watch. Then the six-part Series 5 will get its debut on Watch before being repeated on ITV1. Filming for Series 4 and 5 of Primeval started on 22 March 2010 and finished in November 2010, with January 2011 the Series 4 airdate. Series 5 will then air in around May of that year.