Here is where we are stating it. One of CBS’s worst decisions may go down in TV history as the cancellation of Blue Bloods.
There are a lot of people who have been watching this show for fourteen years, and many of them are upset that it has been canceled.
Even though CBS felt it had to act in this way for financial reasons, it still hurts, especially in a TV environment where family-friendly shows are hard to come by.
Blue Bloods’ Cancelation Comes When It’s Still A Top-Rated Show
Getting Rid Of It Was Never Going To Be Easy
It’s puzzling that CBS decided not to cancel Blue Bloods despite the show’s declining ratings.
I can understand why they were having difficulties finding a means to finance a second season of the highly regarded criminal drama: network TV has been struggling financially ever since streaming grew to be a significant enough competitor to them, and the 2023 writer and actor strikes didn’t help either.
The cast of Blue Bloods Season 14 is among the biggest ever. Every week, eleven major characters make an appearance; several of them are played by actors who have been with the show from its inception.
That’s far more expensive than a cast of newbies, and if you throw in the fact that it’s filmed on location in New York and Tom Selleck has been a Hollywood staple since the 1980s, you’ve got one high-budget show!
Still, CBS should have tried harder to find a way to make it work. Thousands of angry fans, many of whom will make good on their promise to boycott CBS forever, doesn’t seem like a winning strategy if they want people to watch their other offerings.
The cast and crew were able to negotiate the final season by agreeing to a pay cut, and if that wasn’t enough this time, CBS could have explored other options.
Of course, we don’t know what happened around the negotiating table, only that the end result was Blue Bloods’ cancelation, but it still seems like there had to be a way to keep this series going until the actors were ready to quit.
Blue Bloods Is So Popular Because Of Its Family Values
Replacing It With Other Procedurals Won’t Work
The police procedural elements of Blue Bloods were not the reason it was a hit show for CBS for fourteen years.
Undoubtedly, those were compelling, but so was Blue Bloods’ commitment to realism and to portraying the NYPD fairly.
However, the series’ emphasis on family was largely responsible for Blue Bloods’ popularity. The Reagans were more than just typical police officers; they belonged to a multigenerational family that had dinner together every week.
On Sundays, the family set everything aside, regardless of what transpired in the episode. The family supper on Blue Bloods was never, ever cut during the show’s nearly 300 episodes.
That was what made Blue Bloods special and what made people flock to it. In real life, many people are too busy to sit down and eat dinner with their families every week, never mind every night, and many viewers hunger for a world where that isn’t the case (no pun intended).
The Reagans helped fill in some of that gap, allowing the audience to spend time with a family at dinner, even if it wasn’t their own.
Blue Bloods’ cancelation not only leaves a gaping hole because of its focus on family, but leaves many of us feeling as if we’ve lost a beloved set of friends whose home we visited for Sunday dinner every week.
No matter what goes in that time slot — and right now CBS’ plan is for S.W.A.T to move into it — it won’t hold a candle to Blue Bloods unless it is another family drama.
That means people will tune out. That can’t be good for CBS!
Blue Bloods Unified A Polarized Society
It Was Popular With Viewers All Over The Political Spectrum
Today’s polarized political climate has bled over into television. America is so divided that people with different political beliefs don’t even watch the same shows. for the most part.
Blue Bloods was different.
Although the show’s more balanced views of cops and its take on criminal justice issues in New York were more conservative than the average show, its refusal to force opinions on the audience and its focus on family appealed to people all over the political spectrum.
That is something that is so rare that when it happens, it should be treasured and not canceled prematurely.
I didn’t always agree with the Reagans’ point of view on issues, but that didn’t matter.
The stories were interesting, and the bickering and teasing at that week’s family dinner made up for any annoyance about how the characters thought things should work.
If you agreed with their point of view, you could cheer them on. If you didn’t, it gave you something to think about.
I was studying social work and working within the criminal justice system for part of Blue Blood’s run, but it was still my favorite show, and it sparked lots of great discussions with people online who had a different point of view.
Blue Bloods was successful in this partially because Frank was such a special and unusual character.
Like the heroes in old-time Westerns, he lived by his own moral code, doing what he thought was right no matter the personal or professional cost.
Sometimes, he came across as a grumpy curmudgeon, but even when Frank was stubborn, it was such a breath of fresh air to have someone who had a value system they did their best to live by and who wasn’t afraid of being hated for it.
CBS Has Made Similar Errors Before
Blue Bloods’ Cancelation Will Join The ‘Rural Purge’ And Other Errors in TV History
The cancellation of Blue Bloods disregards the fandom and the reasons for the audience’s ardent devotion to the program.
CBS has previously taken this action. In 1970, NBC decided to revamp its image by removing any trace of rural locations from its lineup, so it canceled a number of popular comedies, including Mayberry RFD and The Beverly Hillbillies.
Even worse, The Jeffersons was canceled in 1985 without warning the cast, following 11 years on the air.
Not only was there no fitting conclusion for this cherished sitcom, but lead actor Sherman Hemsley found out he was unemployed after reading about the cancellation in the media.
Blue Bloods’ cancelation seems just as disrespectful as that! At least it will get a finale, but that’s about all that can be said about this.
It’s too late for CBS to change direction now; it’s sold all of the Blue Bloods sets. The best we can hope for is a reunion movie or a Blue Bloods spinoff down the line.
That’s a shame. This beautiful show deserved at least one more season if not many more.
Over to you, Blue Bloods fanatics.
Hit the comments to sound off about how you feel about Blue Bloods’ cancelation.
Blue Bloods’ final eight episodes will air on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c, beginning on October 18, 2024.