Tom Selleck is still not over the cancellation of CBS police drama Blue Bloods.
And he says the whole cast and crew wanted it to continue when it was axed at the end of 2024.
The 81-year-old actor spoke about the long-running police drama when he appeared on the Wednesday, July 29, episode of Ted Danson‘s podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
“It was very frustrating because… out of the top 100 shows on broadcast television, Blue Bloods was number six in our fifteenth year,” Selleck explained. “Nobody wanted to leave. Everybody was gonna stay on. That’s hard to get. It may be some kind of record to have the same cast intact for that length of time.”
He added, “Blue Bloods was a labor of love… I think for everybody.”
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To illustrate that point, Selleck said the cast and production team had already made major sacrifices to keep the show alive, including taking a 25 percent pay cut for the 14th season.
“We’d already done all sorts of things to keep the show going,” the actor explained.
But ultimately it was not enough and television execs decided to end the series.
The 14th and final season of Blue Bloods was split into two parts, with the last episode airing in December 2024.
Selleck, who played NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan, wasn’t ready to retire.
“Maybe people don’t realize, but a lot of shows become miserable to work on,” the Magnum P.I. alum added while reflecting on the series with Danson, who starred in Cheers for 11 seasons. “You get a lot of egos and ‘I’m not coming out of my dressing room until he’s coming out’… and it’s miserable. Blue Bloods was never that.”