“Tom Selleck Reflects on the End of ‘Blue Bloods'”

om Selleck loves to share his thoughts, offer advice, and crack jokes. In my numerous interviews with the legendary actor over the 14 years of Blue Bloods, where he portrayed NYPD Police Commissioner Frank Reagan since 2010, it was clear that he enjoyed honoring the show and his castmates. He always preferred to celebrate the work rather than spoil any upcoming storylines, though he did let slip one detail: “There are some surprises… but they will be positive ones.”

As Blue Bloods heads toward its finale in December, we can expect Commissioner Reagan to continue overseeing the NYPD, presiding over the Reagan family’s iconic Sunday dinners in Brooklyn with his father, retired PC Henry (Len Cariou). Meanwhile, Detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Sergeant Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) will solve more cases; Jamie’s wife, officer Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray), will make arrests; and Senior ADA Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan) will manage Manhattan’s trial bureau. Plus, there’s buzz about a potential Blue Bloods spinoff, something fans are eagerly speculating about. “There are endless possibilities as to what a Blue Bloods spinoff would look like,” CBS Studios president David Stapf teased. “We still have a full season to figure it out.”

Here are excerpts from two exclusive interviews with the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor (best known for his role as private detective Magnum in Magnum, P.I.). The first interview took place on the Blue Bloods set in Brooklyn, just before the final shoot, and the second occurred over the phone after filming had wrapped, while Selleck was back at his California ranch.

Even though Selleck had finished his scenes a few days earlier than most, he made a point of returning to the set for the final day of filming. He was in Los Angeles filming a commercial, but out of respect for the show and his castmates, he flew back to watch the last scenes. “I watched the final scenes with Bridget and Steve [Schirripa], then Donnie and Marisa [Ramirez],” Selleck recalled. “It was tough, but I didn’t want to just stay home. I felt an obligation to be there and share the experience.”

What was your last Blue Bloods scene?

Tom Selleck: Ironically, my final scene was the family dinner—just like the first scene I ever shot for the show 15 years ago! I’m not going to spoil too much, but the family dinner is a way of reuniting the Reagan family. Erin’s daughter Nicky (Sami Gayle) and Danny’s son Jack (Tony Terraciano) were both there. We agreed that we should close the set for the family dinner and not try to exploit it. Most of the cast had a few more days to shoot, but I didn’t.

How did that moment feel?

We filmed for hours, and then they called it the last shot. It was emotional. I had always wanted to recite the poem “Love Is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. There were tears, a lot of hugs. Donnie was deeply affected; he didn’t say much. Bridget spoke, and pretty much everyone had something to say. Vanessa [Ray] took it hard, too.

How do you feel now that Blue Bloods is ending? You’ve been open about not wanting the show to end after season 14.

I’m frustrated. During the last eight episodes, I didn’t want to focus on the end of Blue Bloods but rather its continued success. We were ranked #9 in the Top 100 Shows of 2023-2024 in terms of total viewers, and if you remove the three football shows, we were #6! I’m not going to become a grumpy old guy shaking my fist at the clouds, but when you have a show that performs like that, right from the start, it’s hard to understand why it’s being taken for granted. If you told a network, “Here’s a show that you can program in the worst time slot, and it will guarantee you a win on Friday night for 15 years,” they’d think you were crazy. But it happened, and that’s what frustrates me. It’ll take some time to process all of this. After the weekend of shooting the last episode, I said to myself, “I need to get to bed early so I can rehearse my lines for Monday.” Of course, there was no Monday.

What will you miss most about the Blue Bloods set?

The cast. The actors became a family, just like the Reagan family on screen. Everyone wanted to come back. Most shows don’t end like that; there’s often jealousy or tension, but we overcame that. It’s something we can all be proud of.

You all seem so comfortable with each other both on and off-screen.

We set a tone early, and I’m proud to say I played a role in that, thanks to my experience on Magnum, P.I. On Blue Bloods, I became something of a patriarch to the actor family. Since I’d worked on a long-running show before, I had some credibility when problems arose. That helped, I think.