Blue Bloods ended its fourteen-season run on CBS on Friday night, and one of the police family drama’s executive producers has now spoken about the series finale.
Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes, Len Cariou, Marisa Ramirez, and Vanessa Ray. Recurring players are Abigail Hawk, Gregory Jbara, Robert Clohessy, Steve Schirripa, Dylan Walsh, and Will Hochman star in the police family drama, which follows the Reagans – a law enforcement family living in New York City.
The series finale finds the family battling a gang war with law enforcement as the targets.
EP Kevin Wade said the following about the jam-packed Blue Bloods finale, per Deadline:
“Look, if you’re running for 14 years and almost 300 episodes, you have, by osmosis, an idea of what feels like it works in the editing room and feels like it works on Friday night at 10. So, it’s kind of the Greatest Hits without being silly about it, of what we do, of the kind of stories that we do for Frank, for Jamie, Danny, Jamie Aaron. The combining factor is the ones that we felt worked best and biggest as finales, had all of them pointed at the same case, dilemma, peril, jeopardy, whatever it was. We had talked about it a lot, especially Siobhan and I, and that’s what we came up with.”
Was this finale what Wade had planned for the series all along? He said:
“I never planned out an ending… I looked at and by it I mean, we looked at what we felt were successful series finales for long running shows, comedies and dramas, and it seemed to me that the thing that they pretty much had in common was not beating you over the head with this is the last one.
What they did was they gave you a really good episode, obviously, with a tip of the hat from the start. Then, for, let’s say, the last five minutes of the show, wrapping it up with that sense of anything we do from here on is going to be in your imagination.
Anything you see in the last five minutes; we’re inviting you to imagine the show after the show is no longer on. Sopranos did it in a very significant, mercurial way. Mary Tyler Moore Show did it in a fun and bring a tear to your eye way. M*A*S*H. did a combination of the two. So, it was really just trying to hit that. I don’t know that we got there, but we were aiming high in that sense.”
A Blue Bloods spin-off is in the early stages, but no details about the plot have been released. Wade revealed that he didn’t attempt to use the finale to set up a spin-off. He said:
“Look, Blue Bloods exist not as a lead character. It exists as long as it did and if people liked it because of the that family, that’s a lot of actors. Then going out from there, there’s Steve Schirripa and Marisa Ramirez and Greg Jbara, Bob Clohessy, Abigail Hawk, there were satellites that made the whole. You couldn’t just take one of them, place them in New Orleans and say, Blue Bloods New Orleans. So that was never an option. So in the ingredients in the kitchen for the finale, we didn’t try to do that, not purposefully or not not one way or the other. Simply believe me, that just was not on the horizon when we were doing it.”
What do you think? Were you happy with how Blue Bloods ended? Do you want to see more of the Reagans in another series?
GREAT SHOW AND IT SHOULD HAVE CONTINUED. IT HAD RESPECT FOR ITS AUDIENCE. NO USE OF THE “F” WORD, WHICH HAS RUINED MANY SHOWS. MOST SHOWS NEED TO HAVE MOUTHS WASHED OUT WITH SOAP. THIS ONE WAS REFRESHING, AND MAYBE THAT IS WHY IT GOT CANCELLED??? IMMORALITY IS RAMPID AND WRITERS ALONG WITH PRODUCERS NEED TO CLEAN UP THEIR ACT.
Canceling Blue Bloods was one of the reasons I canceled my Paramount Plus subscription
I would love to see it continue . One of the best shows around .
I don’t think it should have been cancelled. One of the best show on TV. Didn’t have to rely on sex or swearing. Just good story every week.
Wish it wouldn’t have ended. Great family values and brought up what is happening in today’s society.
I’m sorry the show ended – it was the best show on TV. Fridays was my night on CBS and you take away a great show like Blue Bloods. Producers should listen to the fans. You brought back SWAT when that was going to be canceled so why not Blue Bloods.
Would have liked a 90″ finale! Missed seeing the “Technical Adviser” (ex-NYPD) in any scene. Was good to see the entire family even if only briefly @ dinner. Holding our collective breaths for a spin-off AND/OR an occasional special was was done for several other long-time dramas over the years.
I’m also very sad the show ended; it was one of the best shows on TV. The show had many fans, why don’t you listen to your fans? Think about continuing it!
Yes I want to see Blue bloods a lot lot more. I love the show it was great entertainment. It was a family show. And all the actors were super.
Blue Bloods should’ve NEVER ENDED! I will miss all of the characters of this wonderful family oriented, and faithful and part of my family. I feel a great loss with this show ending. I think canceling this series was and is very wrong.
I’m so sad Blue Bloods ended. Please bring it back or have a sequel, but Donnie Wahlburg has to be in it!
It is really sad that the best show is being canceled. I’m really disappointed in CBS.
For me, I think that I have set my expectations too high for wrapping up Blue Bloods. There were talks of a “tragic” ending (something happening to another Raegan (sorry for the spelling if it’s wrong)). I don’t think it was a “terrible” finale, but expectations and anticipations ran too high for me.
I loved Blue Bloods as a whole, and as others have commented, spinoffs nowadays are a “bore” and fluffy for my taste; but yeah, too high of an expectation to see what we’ve got; but it was just an “okay” for me.
Big, big, mistake canceling this fine program. This was the best program on TV. Spinoffs never work. But this is typical of what stupid producers do. Then they wonder why people stop watching TV and watch more podcasts on YouTube and other televised programs elsewhere. There’s no respect for the audience faithfully watching these fine quality programs.
It was a great episode, if a finale had to be made, but I was extremely disappointed that the show ended!