CBS viewers were shocked when the network announced that “Blue Bloods” would conclude with its 14th season in 2024. For many, watching Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) and his family gather around that big dinner table had simply become routine. In fact, Selleck himself had to warm up to the idea that “Blue Bloods” would be ending for good — so his final scene being another Regan family dinner was certainly poetic.
“Nobody wanted it to end,” he told Entertainment Weekly after the series finale aired. “It was all pretty emotional. … It was a blessing for 15 years. I mean, we had two families. We had the Reagan family that we portrayed, and quite quickly we had this family of actors who all actually liked each other, which never happens in television.”
The whole thing was an “enormous blessing” to Selleck, who wrapped his part prior to the final scene. “The last shooting day was a very crowded scene that had an awful lot of the ‘Blue Bloods’ principles, but no real time to sit together,” Selleck lamented. “The real last day for me was the second to the last day when we shot the last family dinner, which was really the end of my involvement in the show. And we did our work for about six or seven hours and didn’t dwell on it.”
Tom Selleck concluded his time on Blue Bloods with a poem
On his last day, things got a bit heavier for Selleck when someone said that the cast and crew needed to “wrap it.” Before the set could close, the seasoned actor marked the occasion with a heartfelt poem and warm embrace for his co-stars. “It was very quiet for a while. Nobody made speeches,” Selleck explained. “It seemed like something needed to be said. I ended up saying a poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay — “Love is Not All” — and that kind of started a discussion that lasted a couple hours. There were some tears and some hugs and group hugs, single hugs.”
Selleck ended up being right about the uniqueness of “Blue Bloods.” He once told TV Insider that “CBS will find an awful lot of people aren’t ready to say goodbye to it.” That prediction was right on the money. In the era of streaming, 14 seasons on broadcast television is almost unfathomable. But almost from the beginning, CBS knew it had a hit and rode the “Blue Bloods” craze until walking away due to budget cuts. Despite ending “Blue Bloods,” CBS has carried on with the next chapter of the Reagan family with the Donnie Wahlberg-led spin-off “Boston Blue.” Given that the sequel series has already been renewed for a second season, it’s clear how much audiences still love this world.