All good things come to an end, but Tom Selleck isn’t going “gentle into that good night,” as poet Dylan Thomas once wrote. “I’m kind of frustrated,” Selleck admits about the ending of the much-beloved Blue Bloods television series, which will return for its final eight episodes this October. Season 14, in which CBS aired the first half of the drama’s episodes earlier this year, marks the swan song of the riveting police procedural. And Selleck is truly having a tough time saying goodbye. The actor said (per TV Insider):
“During those last eight shows, I haven’t wanted to talk about an ending for Blue Bloods but about it still being wildly successful. In a Top 100 Shows of 2023-2024 (in total viewers, we were number 9 out of 100), if you discount the three football shows, we’re #6! I’m not going to turn into a bitter old guy saying, ‘Get off my lawn!’
I don’t believe in holding grudges, but 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.”
Selleck, who has played the Reagan family patriarch since the show debuted back in 2010, continued by saying (below):
“My frustration is the show was always taken for granted because it performed from the get-go. So, how do I feel? It’s going to take a long time to sort all of this out. 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.”
Tom Selleck’s Final Family Dinner on Blue Bloods
Tom Selleck fondly reflects on Blue Bloods as the gritty police drama nears its shocking conclusion after an incredible 14-season run. And it turns out that fate pulled out Frank Reagan’s regular chair at the head of the dinner table one last time for Selleck’s final day of shooting the CBS series. Selleck said in the same story published by TV Insider (below):
“My last scene was ironically family dinner; that was also the first scene I shot on the show 15 years ago! I’m not going to tell you everything about the last episode…but the family dinner kind of reunites the Reagan family. 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. Most of them had four more days to shoot, but not me.”
Selleck has surprisingly never been nominated for his portrayal of Frank Reagan by the Primetime Emmys! However, there’s no question how important his contributions to the series have been, and when the end did come, it was bittersweet at best. Selleck continued by elaborating on what that emotional final day on the Blue Bloods’ set was like during the same sit-down (below):
“We were shooting for hours and all of a sudden, they said ‘Well, that was the last shot.’ I always wanted to say this poem, ‘Love Is Not All’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay. There was crying and there was an enormous amount of hugs. Donnie [Wahlberg] was really broken up; he didn’t say much. Bridget [Moynahan] spoke. Just about everybody said something.”
Donnie Wahlberg has also bid farewell to the fan-favorite drama ahead of its controversial cancelation, like many of his and Selleck’s other co-stars have, as the show will air for the final time this December. But until then, the final eight episodes of Blue Bloods Season 14 drops Friday, October 18, at 10 p.m. EDT on CBS and the following day on Paramount+.
