The upcoming 14th season of CBS’ venerable cop family drama Blue Bloods will be its last. The popular series starring Tom Selleck is getting an extended farewell with a two-part final season which will consist of 18 episodes, Deadline has learned. The first 10 will air this coming midseason, premiering on CBS Feb. 16 and streaming live on Paramount+; the remaining 8 will run in fall 2024.
Coming off a double Hollywood strike that reduced the sizes of the 2023-24 scripted seasons to 10-13 episodes each — with a number of CBS shows only doing 10 — the network is giving two of its top series that are coming to an end, Blue Bloods and Young Sheldon, a proper sendoff with expanded final seasons. As Deadline reported last week, the Big Bang Theory prequel’s seventh and final season will be comprised of 14 episodes.
Blue Bloods, about multiple generations of the Reagan family workin in New York law enforcement, is leaving while still on top. A long-time anchor to CBS’ formidable Friday night lineup, it was the most watched primetime program of the night last season and the #3 most watched broadcast drama with 9.54 million viewers (more than 11 million viewers an episode after +35-day multiplatform viewing.) Blue Bloods, produced by CBS Studios, has won its Friday 10 PM time slot in total viewers every season since the series’ 2010 launch.
“Blue Bloods will forever be a beloved part of CBS’s legacy. It ruled Friday nights with unprecedented dominance since its premiere and established itself as a pillar of our winning lineup with an exceptionally devoted fan base,” Amy Reisenbach, President, CBS Entertainment and David Stapf, President, CBS Studios, said in a joint statement.
The two executives acknowledged the series’ star and executive producer Selleck, the late Blue Bloods executive producer Leonard Goldberg, who died in 2019, and writer/executive producer Kevin Wade, who has been on the show since midway through the first season and showrunner since Season 2. They also referenced a Blue Bloods fixture, the Reagan’s weekly Sunday dinner, which is at the heart of each episode.
“We’ll be forever grateful to the legendary Leonard Goldberg for developing this signature series and to the amazing cast led by Tom Selleck, who America embraced as family and watched as welcomed guests at the Reagan dinner table,” Reisenbach and Stapf said. “We also sincerely thank the incredible writing and producing teams guided by executive producer Kevin Wade, for years of compelling episodes as they conceive this final chapter that we expect to be the most satisfying season yet for our loyal viewers.”
As Deadline reported extensively earlier this year, Blue Bloods’ March renewal followed difficult negotiations, with CBS asking for significant budget cuts — 25% for above-the-line talent, including actors — amid increased fiscal scrutiny in the media business and a push to contain production costs. The cast and producers ultimately agreed to the salary reductions in order to keep the show going and keep hundreds of crew and other support personnel employed.
The March renewal came with a presumption that Season 14 would be likely the series’ last, sources said. When the Blue Bloods writers reconvened in early October following the end of the WGA strike, they started crafting the upcoming season as a potential final chapter, I hear. The decision to end Blue Bloods was solidified after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike when the size of the order was determined and the idea to split it into two parts came about.
Blue Bloods, which has aired 275 episodes in its 13 seasons to date, will end its run with 293 episodes. With its 14 seasons, it ranks among the ten longest-running CBS scripted series ever. Selleck leads a cast that also includes Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, Len Cariou, Marisa Ramirez and Vanessa Ray.
“For the past 13 years it has been an honor and a privilege to work on a show that not only celebrates the men and women who protect and serve in New York City, but also displayed the importance of family,” Selleck said. “Working alongside these incredible actors, writers, producers, directors and crew has been a dream come true and I’m grateful to have been a part of this extraordinary group for over 275 episodes. Thank you to CBS Studios and CBS Network for their steadfast support and we offer heartfelt gratitude to the fans who gathered with us for dinner every Friday night.”
Blue Bloods ranks in the top 10 for series on Paramount+ based on minutes viewed, and for viewed channels on Pluto TV. With strong performances on CBS, streaming (including a run on Netflix), in syndication and internationally, the drama, executive produced by Wade, Siobhan Byrne-O’Connor, Ian Biederman and Dan Truly, has become a key asset for the company over the past decade and a half.
“It has been a tremendous privilege these past 13 years to fill the huge canvas that Leonard Goldberg imagined; a police procedural told from the point of view of four generations of a close-knit, fiercely loyal family. Blue Bloods will leave behind an enduring legacy that was collectively achieved by our extraordinary cast, our talented and tirelessly inventive writers, and the best crew in the business,” Wade said. “CBS Studios and the CBS Television Network encouraged us to tell our stories in multi-layered narratives that have gone on to resonate with millions of people, and we thank them for their unwavering partnership and collaboration. We look forward to giving fans an exciting and emotionally satisfying final season, and we are forever grateful for their enthusiasm and their loyalty over all these years.”
