Tom Selleck highlighted his feud with CBS over Blue Bloods cancelation.
The actor recently appeared on an episode of Ted Danson‘s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, where he expressed his disappointment with the network’s decision.
“Blue Bloods was a labor of love… I think for everybody,” he said during the conversation.
Tom Selleck Said the Cast Accepted Massive Pay Cuts to Keep ‘Blue Bloods’ Alive
Tom Selleck said that the ‘Blue Bloods’ cast accepted 25% pay cut to keep the show ‘going.’MEGA
The 81-year-old actor called the entire situation surrounding the cancelation of the iconic police procedural show “frustrating.”
“The real truth to that is in the last year of [the series], at our last family dinner, everybody wanted to come back,” he said.
“We’d already taken a 25% cut in salary,” he further divulged, before adding that they’d agreed to do “all sorts of things to keep the show going.”
Despite the cast’s efforts, CBS canceled the series in 2023, bringing the show’s 14-season run to an end.
Tom Selleck said no one from the ‘Blue Bloods’ cast ‘wanted to leave.’MEGA
Selleck also pointed out that “out of the top 100 shows on broadcast television, Blue Bloods was number six in our fifteenth year.”
“Nobody wanted to leave. Everybody was gonna stay on,” he continued.
“That’s hard to get. It may be some kind of record to have the same cast intact for that length of time,” he told the host.
The star-studded ensemble included Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan and Will Estes, among others.
The star-studded cast of ‘Blue Bloods’ included Donnie Wahlberg and Bridget Moynahan, alongside Tom Selleck.MEGA
He also pointed out, “Maybe people don’t realize, but a lot of shows become miserable to work on.”
“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,” he added.
However, he revealed that the crime drama “was never that.”
“Usually if it wasn’t a family, it would be different, but you know, you couldn’t very well replace Jamie or Danny or anybody with another actor,” the actor said, referring to Wahlberg and Estes’ characters.
Tom Selleck Previously Opened Up About His Opinion on ‘Blue Bloods’ Cancelation
Tom Selleck said ‘Blue Bloods’ was ‘taken for granted’ because of its immediate success.MEGA
This was not the first time The Shadow Riders star had expressed his anger over CBS canceling the fan-favorite series.
He shared similar sentiments during an interview with TV Insider in October 2024, noting, “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,” he added.
He also remarked that the show “was always taken for granted because it performed from the get-go.”
“So how do I feel? It’s going to take a long time to sort all of this out,” Selleck commented.
Tom Selleck said it would ‘take a long time’ for him to get over ‘Blue Bloods’ being canceled.MEGA
CBS launched a spin-off show titled Boston Blue in October 2025 that follows Wahlberg’s Danny after he relocated from New York City to Boston. Many Blue Bloods veterans made cameo appearances in the show’s first season, including Bridget Moynahan‘s Erin, who played Selleck’s district attorney daughter in the original series.
An insider told Closer Weekly last year that Wahlberg was in talks to bring his onscreen father back as a guest star in the spin-off.
“Donnie is an old-school loyal guy; he’s going to fight for Tom to get a piece of the action. He and Tom are still very close; they talk all the time, and Donnie is well aware that Tom was not happy about Blue Bloods getting canceled,” they said.
However, The Sacketts star told Hour Detroit in November that he was unsure “if [he] would do Boston Blue.”
“That’s another show,” he said.