Tom Selleck Says He’s “Frustrated” by ‘Blue Bloods’ Cancellation: “Show Was Always Taken for Granted”
The longtime CBS police drama will end this year after a 14-year run.
Tom Selleck is still working out how to say goodbye to Frank Reagan. The actor shared recently he’s “frustrated” by CBS‘ decision to cancel Blue Bloods, and feels the program was taken for granted during its 14-year run.
“During those last eight shows, I haven’t wanted to talk about an ending for Blue Bloods but about it still being wildly successful,” Selleck, who plays the NYPD commissioner in the CBS drama, said in an interview with TV Insider.
Selleck went on to cite an unspecified list of top shows from 2023-24, saying, “if you discount the three football shows, we’re #6!” While acknowledging he doesn’t want to “turn into a bitter old guy saying, ‘Get off my lawn,’” the actor said he’s still processing the network’s choice to cancel such a successful show.
“If you were to say to the television network, ‘Here’s a show you can program in the worst time slot you got, and it is going to guarantee you winning Friday night for the next 15 years,’ it would be almost impossible to believe,” he said. “My frustration is the show was always taken for granted because it performed from the get-go.”
Selleck added that it will “take a long time to sort all of this out,” and he’ll need to time to adjust to a routine without Blue Bloods. “I remember after the weekend [of the final episode’s shoot], I said, ‘I’ve got to get to bed early tonight because I have to do my dialogue for Monday.’ Well, there was no Monday. It’s just going to take a while.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Selleck also teased a few details about the show’s upcoming final episode. “The family dinner kind of reunites the Reagan family,” he said. “Erin’s daughter Nicky [Sami Gayle] was there and so was Jack [Tony Terraciano], Danny’s older son. Everybody agreed with me that we should close the set for the family dinner and not exploit that.”
The reunion was extra special, Selleck said, because he thinks of the actors like family. “There isn’t a single one of them who didn’t want to come back,” he said. “Most shows don’t end that way — there’s petty jealousy and all sorts of things — and we seemed to overcome that. It’s something for everybody to hang their hats on and be proud of.”
