Tom Selleck Reveals ‘Blue Bloods’ Cast Took 25% Pay Cut Before Devastating Cancellation
The beloved actor shares the surprising sacrifices the cast made to keep the show alive
Key Takeaways
- Tom Selleck opened up about the 'Blue Bloods' cancellation on Ted Danson's podcast.
- The actor revealed that he and the 'Blue Bloods' cast took 25% pay cuts to save the show.
- Despite their sacrifice, the series was still cancelled after 14 seasons.
In 2010, Tom Selleck made his debut as Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods, which aired for 14 seasons before its conclusion in 2024. The series was met with a devoted fanbase and favorable ratings throughout its run, but CBS ultimately made the decision to wrap things up—much to the cast’s dismay.
While the series has spawned a spinoff, Boston Blue, which follows a new chapter for Donnie Wahlberg’s character of Danny Reagan, others have left their characters in the past—but some Blue Bloods stars still wonder why the original show couldn’t have continued. During an appearance on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast with Ted Danson, Tom Selleck opened up about the circumstances leading to the show’s end, including a major pay cut taken by the entire cast. Here, read all about what Tom Selleck shared about the Blue Bloods cancellation.
The ‘Blue Bloods’ cancellation left the cast reeling
In the realm of television, running successfully for 14 seasons is rare, but airing for 14 seasons and still having the cast love the work? Now that’s hard to come by. According to Tom Selleck, even after over a decade of telling the Reagan story, the core cast were still entirely devoted and fully committed to continuing the series.
“Blue Bloods was a labor of love, I think for everybody,” he shared with Danson. “Maybe people don’t realize, but a lot of shows become miserable to work on. You get a lot of egos. ‘I’m not coming out of my dressing room ‘til he’s coming out,’ and it’s miserable. It’s absolutely miserable. Blue Bloods was never that.”
He went on to explain that playing the family patriarch, he felt as though he had a duty as a leader to set a positive example, and it paid off when considering the love his castmates had for the show throughout its run. “The real truth to that is, in the last year, at our last family dinner, everybody wanted to come back. We’d already taken a 25% cut in salary. We’d already done all sorts of things to keep the show going.”
Despite the cast’s sacrifice, close bond, commitment to the show and Blue Bloods’ spot at number six out of the top 100 shows on television at the time of its end, it still wasn’t enough to convince the network to keep it going, and its cancellation is something that still stings.
What’s next for Tom Selleck?
Despite Tom Selleck’s love for Blue Bloods and the Blue Bloods universe, the actor shared that he doesn’t have much of a desire to join the spinoff, Boston Blue, telling Hour Detroit that it’s “another show.” He continued, “I think it’s partly my lot in life to make sure Blue Bloods has its place in television history, but I don’t think it’s my lot in life to keep playing Frank Reagan.”
However, the actor still has solid plans for the future, as he’s slated to host Crime and Justice with Tom Selleck (working title) on the History Channel at some point. Whatever might be next for him, we can’t wait to cheer him on.
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