CBS’ police procedural drama Blue Bloods was one of the most-watched series on network TV. The Tom Selleck-led drama centered on the Reagans, a family who has a great number of members working for law enforcement. The show ran for 14 seasons and had incredible viewership numbers despite its time slot.
The series was unceremoniously canceled ahead of its fourteenth season with SWAT replacing its time slot. Everyone from critics, the fans, and the actors themselves campaigned hard to get the series back on again but CBS did not budge. Despite so much demand, I still cannot figure out why the network canceled the series.
CBS canceling Blue Blood despite high ratings and viewership is so odd
2024 was a year that had quite a few endings and more than its share of cancellations. Hyped-up shows with a large and vocal fan following such as What We Do In The Shadows and Yellowstone had their swansongs this year, and the cancellation of shows like Our Flag Means Death and Time Bandits ignited fan campaigns to save them.
The CBS series Blue Bloods belonged to the second category. Tom Selleck and Donni Wahlberg starred in the procedural drama that centered on the Reagan family. Airing from 2010, the show was a hit for the network since day one and has raked in incredible viewership numbers. At the renewal of the final 14th season, CBS stated (via THR),
Blue Bloods has dominated Friday nights since its premiere and remained an important anchor for CBS’ winning lineup. Led by the outstanding Tom Selleck, and an incredible cast and creative team, viewers continue to embrace the Reagans, their law enforcement family, and the series’ dramatic storytelling. We can’t wait to pull a chair up to the Reagan family dinner table for another fantastic season.
The show reportedly had steady ratings on its Friday night slot and became CBS’ second-longest-running show with its fourteenth season behind NCIS: Los Angeles. By the end of its run, it was also the sixth-highest-watching network TV show and CBS’ fourth-most-watched series. Yet, the network chose to cancel it.
Viewership numbers are usually the primary reason for a show’s cancellation. Take the much-admired David Fincher series Mindhunter, which was canceled by Netflix right after its second season due to its viewership numbers not justifying its cost. However, it is still incredibly strange that CBS chose to cancel it.
The show replacing it is reportedly SWAT, another procedural action show. According to ScreenRant, SWAT places sixteenth in the highest-rated series by CBS. It makes no sense to boost this show’s ratings despite the large gap between their viewership numbers.
Tom Selleck and other cast members tried their best to keep Blue Bloods going
Beyond viewership numbers and ratings, shows get canceled for other reasons too. Well, maybe canceled is the wrong term for this reason. Some end because the makers want to end the story they set out to tell. Take Breaking Bad or The Sopranos, the character arcs of the leading protagonist had an endgame from the start and they ended after five and six seasons.
While some shows end because of the key talents having creative differences, Blue Bloods had no such issues. The leading cast of the series always came across as a real family who spent fifteen years together working every day. Led by Tom Selleck, the series was beloved by its cast members and they too did not go down without a fight.
The cast first saved the show by reportedly taking a 25 percent pay cut from their salaries to make sure Blue Bloods ran for a final fourteenth season (via THR). Despite requests and enthusiasm from the cast, however, season 14 set out to be the last. Selleck expressed her frustration with the network’s decision multiple times and he too echoed the sentiment that it did not make sense.
He said in an interview with TV Insider about the show’s cancellation and how he felt during the final days,
I’m kind of frustrated. During those last eight shows, I haven’t wanted to talk about an ending for Blue Bloods but about it still being wildly successful. 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.
The network has not even announced a spinoff show to capitalize on the incredible fan following that it has now. Studios and networks love a franchise and CBS definitely does with its infinite NCIS spinoffs. But the way they are treating Blue Bloods makes it seem like something nefarious is at play here.
Intense fan campaigns too did not save Blue Bloods from getting canceled
The more I try to dissect the reasoning behind CBS’ decision to cancel Blue Bloods, the more it is baffling. As I mentioned earlier, there are only a few reasons why a beloved series gets canceled and Blue Bloods seemed to fall in none of those categories. Everyone involved was enthusiastic to make the show and fans loved to watch it in huge numbers.
Many shows have been saved by fan campaigns. Sitcoms such as Community and Brooklyn Nine-Nine found a home on different networks and though they only thrived for a while, still kept the lights on for a few seasons. Arrested Development too was revived by Netflix after its third season and went on for two more.
Fans of Blue Bloods left no stone unturned to encourage CBS to reconsider their decision. From letter-writing campaigns (via Chasing Confetti) to passing around online petitions to even in-person picketing, they did it all to garner the network’s attention. The campaigns were even endorsed by the actors in the series.
However, none of it seemed to work and Blue Bloods aired its final episode on December 13, 2024. CBS’ Entertainment President had no concrete answer to its cancellation and just stated (via EW),
It is important to give [the] show the sendoff it deserves. We love this cast, we love their passion for the show. All shows have to come to an end. It’s important to us to refresh the schedule. We are going to end the show come December.
The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this is that Blue Bloods might just have been expensive to produce. Long-running shows tend to have that problem and with increasing salaries, many networks might just find it cheaper to end the series than spend more money to retain a strong base. They can just hope the same base translates to whatever replacement comes along.