Someone in the Blue Bloods ranks is looking to cop the long-running, well-watched CBS drama at least a few more episodes.
It was announced in November that CBS‘ super-reliable Friday-night closer would be ending after the current season, which is being split into two batches (of 10 and then eight episodes) — the second of which won’t air until the fall.
Back in January, Blue Bloods front man Tom Selleck indicated that he himself is by no means champing at the bit to hang up NYPD police commissioner Frank Reagan’s three-piece suits. “I’m not counting the days so I can do something else,” he told TV Insider. “I love the work. Sometimes the hours are a little harder because I’m older, but so what? I want work as long as they’ll have me.”
Now, TV son Donnie Wahlberg is out there describing Season 14 as “allegedly” and “potentially” the series’ last. “There are rumblings [it isn’t], so we’ll see what happens,” Wahlberg said as a guest on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live (via People.com).
TVLine has reached out to CBS for comment on Wahlberg’s speculation.
It was actually Blue Bloods vet Gregory Jbara, who plays NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Garrett Moore, that first fueled talk of these “final” 18 episodes not necessarily being 100% final.
“I don’t want to get any anyone’s hopes up,” Jbara said on the Think Big podcast (cued up above), “but if our numbers are really good… I know that there’s a push to try and flesh out the back half” of the season, to extend it into Spring 2025 and hit the 300 mark. (Currently, Blue Bloods is on pace to fall a few shy of the entirely symbolic, round-number milestone.)
“Tom [Selleck]’s got something going on,” Jbara claimed. “He literally goes, ‘I’ve got a couple tricks in my bag that I’m going to present to the network.’
“I think I can say without teasing anyone that that is a something that’s being considered,” Jbara added.
Three episodes into the season, Blue Bloods has led Friday in total audience twice, with only its premiere falling just shy of lead-in Fire Country‘s. With Live+7 playback, Blue Bloods is averaging 8.8 million viewers, trailing only NCIS, the Super Bowl-inflated Tracker, FBI and Chicago Fire, among all TV dramas.