Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on CBS from September 24, 2010, to December 13, 2024, across 14 seasons and 293 episodes. Its main characters were members of the fictional Reagan family, an American, Irish Catholic family in New York City with a history of work in law enforcement. Blue Bloods starred Tom Selleck as New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan; other main cast members include Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, Will Estes and Len Cariou for all 14 seasons, plus Amy Carlson (seasons 1–7), Sami Gayle (seasons 1–10) as well as Marisa Ramirez (regular since season 4) and Vanessa Ray (regular since season 5).
The show was filmed on location in New York City with references to suburban areas as well. Selleck has called the New York City setting "another character" on the show and said he pushed for the New York filming location. Though parts of the pilot episode were filmed in Canada, Wahlberg also said that "New York is too much of a character in this show to try to duplicate it somewhere else." The series debuted on September 24, 2010, with episodes airing on Fridays following CSI: NY before being moved to Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT for a four-week tryout. After four weeks, it returned to its original Friday 10:00 p.m.slot, where it remained until its cancellation in 2024.
On March 29, 2023, CBS announced the show had been renewed for a fourteenth season, with the cast and producers reportedly taking a pay cut to secure the renewal. On July 21, 2023, CBS announced the renewed fourteenth season would be delayed and on hold due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. On November 20, 2023, it was announced that the fourteenth season would be its last. The first ten episodes of the season began airing on February 16, 2024, while the rest of the season, consisting of eight episodes, premiered on October 18, 2024. The series finale aired on December 13, 2024.
CBS subsequently announced in February 2025 that it had ordered a spin-off under the working title Boston Blue, set to launch in the fall with Donnie Wahlberg executive producing and reprising his role as Danny Reagan.
The series follows the Reagan family, with a long history of policing in New York. Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) is the New York Police Department Police Commissioner, a post his father also held. Frank's eldest surviving son, Danny (Donnie Wahlberg), is an NYPD detective and his youngest son, Jamie (Will Estes), is an NYPD sergeant who graduated from Harvard University; his daughter, Erin (Bridget Moynahan), works as a New York city assistant district attorney. Frank's second birth son, Joe (the series mistakenly refers to him as the eldest in later episodes), was murdered by a corrupt cop in the line of duty in events that predate the series, when he was involved with an FBI investigation of a group of corrupt NYPD cops known as the Blue Templar. Frank's father, Henry (Len Cariou), is a former NYPD beat cop who rose through the ranks to become police commissioner. The show's title references both the "blue-blooded" concept of nobility as it relates to the Reagan family's powerful roles within New York's criminal justice system as well as an entire family who dedicate their lives to law enforcement, one that "bleeds blue" to match the blue color of NYPD uniforms.
Each member of the family represents a different aspect of police work or the legal process: Frank as the commissioner, Danny as the detective, Jamie as the beat cop, and Erin as the prosecutor. Additionally, while each person's story might occasionally interweave with another's, the show also follows the professional and, at times, personal relationships with their respective partners and colleagues: Frank with Garrett Moore (Gregory Jbara), the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information and de facto Chief of Staff, Detective 1st Grade Abigail Baker (Abigail Hawk), the primary aide to the commissioner, and later, Lieutenant Sidney Gormley (Robert Clohessy), the Special Assistant to the Commissioner and de facto Chief of department; Danny with Detective Jackie Curatola (Jennifer Esposito) and later, Detective Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) at the 54th Precinct; Jamie with Officer Edit "Eddie" Janko (Vanessa Ray) at the 12th and later the 29th Precinct; and Erin with Detective Anthony Abetemarco (Steven Schirripa), who is an investigator for the DA's office.
Both Henry's and Frank's respective wives, Betty and Mary, are deceased, as is Frank's second son, Joe. Erin is divorced and has one daughter, college graduate Nicky (Sami Gayle), who lived with her mother until accepting a job in San Francisco in season 10. Danny is a widower with two sons, Jack and Sean. He was married to Linda (Amy Carlson), a nurse who was killed off-screen in a helicopter crash between seasons 7 and 8. Jamie married his partner, Edit "Eddie" Janko, in the season 9 finale. They acknowledged their mutual attraction during season 7 and became engaged at the end of season 8.
The season 10 finale reveals a son of Joe's, a fact unknown to himself and the family until the revelation. He's a 24-year-old detective in the firearms unit named Joe Hill (played by Will Hochman).
The Reagans are an Irish-American Catholic family that gathers for Sunday dinner each week, envisioned as a recurring element of the show from the beginning. According to People, "the Sunday supper is the heart of each show." The dinner scene was the first scene filmed as part of the pilot episode. Original series executive producer Leonard Goldberg has said he was inspired by the Norman Rockwell Freedom from Want painting to combine the themes of a police drama and family. "The show is about the moments between these people...you'll remember the small moments between characters," he said at the time of the show's premiere at the Paley Center. As an Episcopalian, Selleck said he got instruction from Moynahan on how to properly cross himself when playing Catholic character Frank Reagan. Robert Clohessy, whose father was a New York police officer and brother is a detective, has said he was the "only Irish-Catholic person born and raised in NYC on the show." Guests at the dinner outside of the core family members have included Frank's former partner Lenny Ross (Treat Williams), Frank's DCPI Garrett Moore, Frank's friend Archbishop Kevin Kearns (Stacy Keach), Danny's partner Maria Baez, Erin's ex-husband Jack Boyle (Peter Hermann) and her investigator partner Anthony Abetemarco, and Joe Hill with his mother Paula Hill (Bonnie Somerville).
CBS gave the show a pilot order in February 2010, and the castings of Donnie Wahlberg,Tom Selleck, Len Cariou and Bridget Moynahan were announced in March 2010. Selleck valued that the show was character-driven and not a "pure procedural" and recalled former CBS executive Nina Tassler saying that "We don't use the 'P' word around your show." He has said that the experience of former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has influenced his performance, and he also spoke to Raymond Kelly. Wahlberg said an interview that he was drawn to the Blue Bloods role after his experience playing an NYPD detective in a 2005 NBC TV pilot NY70 set in the 1970s that was not picked up, and he has also said that reading the dinner scene in the first pilot script reminded him of his own family growing up. In the pilot episode stage, the series was originally called "Reagan's Law," and some of the characters originally had different first names. According to Deadline Hollywood, the Blue Bloods pilot was a "dark horse" that made it on to the CBS schedule due to a strong audience response during test screenings. Both Selleck and Wahlberg said they saw benefits in low expectations for the Friday night timeslot, as Wahlberg told the New York Post: "We don't have the pressure other shows have. On Friday night, we have time to build an audience. And we did that." In October 2010, the series was one of five new shows on CBS to get a full season order. Selleck played a key role in bringing together and encouraging the three cast members who came to form his character's core inner circle at 1 Police Plaza by season 5. In a 2024 feature for Emmy Magazine, Wahlberg recalled helping to convince Moynahan to take the role as his sister after previously working with her on an unsuccessful TV pilot called Bunker Hill. He also encouraged Ramirez to stay on beyond the initial season 3 episode she came on to in a guest role.
Selleck mentioned that he was drawn to the project because of the strong pilot script and that he was concerned about becoming involved in an ongoing series because he did not want to compromise his commitment to the Jesse Stone television movies. Beginning January 19, 2011, Blue Bloods was moved to Wednesdays at 10 p.m. for a four-week tryout. In February 2011, the series returned to its Friday night time slot due to the series premiere of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. Kevin Wade became showrunner of the series after the initial creators and a previous showrunner exited the series in 2011 over creative differences with Selleck, and supported by other main cast members, over balancing the character-driven and procedural aspects of the show. Series music composer Mark Snow said there was tension between him and the show's original creators over the use of music to underscore dialogue since they did not have experience incorporating music in that way from their previous work on The Sopranos. Director David Barrett explained how he developed a framework for filming the character in different ways to emphasize their character traits that he conveyed to other directors. "This show is a painting, and each storyline is a color to this painting, so let's approach it from a cinematic rhythm, if you will." Showrunner Kevin Wade emphasized that the show didn't seek to be a "soap box" to promote one point of view, but aimed to give equal airing to opposing views on law enforcement issues. Both writer producers Brian Burns and Siobhan Byrne O'Connor have family ties to law enforcement. Former NYPD officer James Nuciforo has been the technical advisor for the series since the first season, and also has a recurring on-screen role as part of Frank Reagan's security detail. In 2012, a scene with Tom Selleck was the first production permitted to film at the 9/11 Memorial after it opened in 2011.
On October 20, 2012, CBS announced that Jennifer Esposito was being dropped from the series, with her character, Detective Curatola, being placed on indefinite leave of absence. Esposito and CBS had been at odds over her limited availability for work after the actress was diagnosed with celiac disease. She had missed a week after collapsing on set earlier in the season. According to Esposito, CBS challenged her request for a reduced work schedule, and further, kept her from finding work elsewhere. In a press release from CBS, the network said that Esposito had "informed us that she is only available to work on a very limited part-time schedule. As a result, she's unable to perform the demands of her role and we regretfully had to put her character on a leave of absence." Esposito's last appearance in a "starring role" as Curatola was in the season three episode "Nightmares," though she did later reprise her role as a guest star in the final episode of season thirteen, "Forgive Us Our Trespasses", and appeared again in season fourteen. Amy Carlson was written out of the show after she opted not to renew her contract after season 7. Tony Terraciano departed from his weekly recurring role in season 9 to focus on his college studies, while still making occasional guest appearances. Regarding Sami Gayle's character of Nicky, Showrunner Kevin Wade said that in later seasons the show didn't "have the real estate to tell Nicky stories" once the character "aged out" after graduating from college and moving to San Francisco, also aside from occasional guest appearances.
Wahlberg said that after they watched the pilot episode together, Selleck told him: "I'm really good at making scripts better, I notice that you are too, and I'm going to count on you to keep running through walls and do what you do for the run of this show." Particularly in the first season, Wahlberg said he snuck references to song titles from his band New Kids on the Block into his dialogue, while band member Jordan Knight appeared as a background extra in a later episode. Wahlberg directed an episode in Season 4 and Moynahan directed three episodes Seasons 12,13 and 14. Co-star Gregory Jbara said in an interview that Selleck tended to focus on efficiently getting through the day's scenes, which he contrasted with a looser atmosphere in other scenes, such as with Wahlberg. Talking about he how he came on the show at the end of the first season after working with Selleck previously, Jbara said in a 2025 interview that Selleck was clear that "we have to make [the show] about people" rather having Selleck's character overseeing a real-time crime center as he did at the beginning of that season. "I think that's the great thing the show did, you ended up caring about the characters and that family." Selleck recalled Wahlberg saying "Guaranteed, the audience will be entertained if you'd put two members of the Reagan family together in any scene." Co-star Steve Schirripa said that while he just focused on his performance, Moynahan, Wahlberg and Selleck were also interested in production aspects of the show and noted that unlike The Sopranos, Blue Bloods didn't do a read-through of episodes. Wahlberg has contrasted his acting approach with Selleck's, saying "We both approach the show with the same level of commitment, but Tom is very focused and reserved and uses his years of experience in the craft, while I use instinct and feeling, and emotion a lot." He also said of working with Selleck: "It can never be overstated how much he's committed to the show. He stays behind and works on the show in post-production. He works on the scripts before they're even brought to the cast." Selleck said he took on the work of producing and editing the show in later seasons "when I really didn’t feel the actors were getting their due." Co-star Amy Carlson said of working with Wahlberg in 2011: "When he works on this show, he is Emmy material. He lives this character in such a visceral way, it really resonates on the screen." Moynahan added that "Tom is the face of the show, but Donnie is the engine that keeps everything going." Wahlberg regularly shared behind-the-scenes videos and photos from the set on social media. A 2016 episode of Wahlberg's reality show Wahlburgers revolved around bringing food from the family-run restaurant chain to the Blue Bloods set. Actors like Vanessa Ray and Donnie Wahlberg have taken note of relationship names used by fans of the show on social media, with the one for Jamie and Eddie used explicitly in dialogue on the series.
The show marked its 150th episode in 2017 with a cast panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y. When filming of the end of the 10th season was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wahlberg hosted cast members for a "virtual" family dinner that was streamed online. Core cast members were featured on the cover of TV Guide magazine in March 2022 to mark the show's 250th episode. The show has been featured on the cover of TV Guide Magazine twelve times, most frequently featuring Tom Selleck by himself or with other cast members, and Donnie Wahlberg by himself in 2023. An October 2024 edition of the magazine featured four separate covers of Blue Bloods cast members to mark the second half of the 14th season, including Selleck with Len Cariou, Donnie Wahlberg with Marisa Ramirez, Will Estes with Vanessa Ray and Bridget Moynahan by herself, in addition to a special farewell edition. In a video about the two 2024 TV Guide covers, Wahlberg in particular praised Ramirez for making her own mark on the show in taking over the role as his character's partner, remarking that "now everyone wants these two to be a couple, because she's so awesome." The cast participated in a panel discussion at the Paley Center to mark the premiere of the 14th Season, after previously participating in Paley panels for the series premiere in 2010 and participating in subsequent panels in 2014 and 2017.
According to TV by the Numbers, by committing itself to a third season of Blue Bloods, CBS all but guaranteed a fourth season, because, as a CBS Television Studios production, CBS had a financial incentive to produce at least the minimum number of episodes needed for stripped syndication. On March 27, 2013, CBS made it official by renewing Blue Bloods for a fourth season to begin in the fall of 2013.
In 2023, the show was renewed through season 14, with the cast and producers taking a pay cut to help secure a 14th season, for which production began in late fall 2023 after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. On November 20, 2023, it was reported that the fourteenth season is going to be the series's final season, with the first 10 episodes begin airing February 16, 2024, and the remaining eight in the fall of 2024, with producers including Selleck having pushed the network for the extension beyond the spring for the additional episodes in the fall. The second half of the final season premiered on October 18, 2024 and the series finale aired on December 13, 2024.
In a February 2024 podcast interview, Gregory Jbara said it was possible the show could be extended to the spring 2025 season and beyond 300 episodes depending on viewership and initiative by Tom Selleck, a hope Jbara still expressed several weeks later. Fans started an initiative to save the show with a social media hashtag, a petition, a letter writing campaign and in person signs on location, and cited Wahlberg's comments in a February 2024 Entertainment Tonight interview: "Cancel the Cancellation! The fans want us to keep going. The cast want to keep going. Cancel the Cancel!" Wahlberg paid tribute to the fans' efforts during his regular live-tweeting during the airing of the show and in an Instagram video featuring other cast members. In interviews with CBS News in May 2024 during production of the second half of season 14, Selleck said "I will continue to think that CBS will come to their senses" and that "all the cast wants to come back," comments he repeated at the end of May. He also said that "when they choose to end it, I think is debatable." He also told Entertainment Tonight "I'm gonna stay optimistic because everybody on the show wants to do it."
On June 4, 2024, Paramount Global co-CEO Brian Robbins said at a shareholder presentation that there were plans for a "franchise extension" of Blue Bloods. In a February 2024 appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Wahlberg had stated that "maybe there's some way it will still end up surviving and carrying on in a different way." Also in February 2024, showrunner Kevin Wade had suggested in an interview that "I think there is some idea on the part of the current CBS to maybe [explore] a 'Blue Bloods 2.0.''' In March 2024, Wahlberg said in a radio interview with Andy Cohen along with his New Kids on the Block band members that there were "rumblings" that the show could continue after its "alleged" final season, during which band member Jordan Knight appeared to joke about a "Donnie spin-off."
After negotiations over a merger between Paramount Global with Skydance Media initially collapsed in June 2024, a Deadline Hollywood column evaluating the company's possible future plans noted that the show's "Tom Selleck-led cast is kicking and screaming to stop the show from fading away at season's end. Blue Bloods might not be a sexy Emmy magnet like Succession, but it has made a lot more money." In reviewing TV ratings for the 2024 season, Deadline called the cancellation "one of the bigger head scratchers" given the show's average audience of over 8 million viewers in 7-day ratings, noting that it "still does better than The Equalizer (7.7 million) and Fire Country (7.1 million)," both of which were renewed.
In comments livestreamed and recorded after production completed on season 14 in June 2024, Wahlberg recalled the disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic and stated that "God willing, we'll get some more time together to do something magical again ... I pray that that can happen in one way or another, I won't give up trying." He wrote on Instagram in the days after filming that the show was one "that I know so many of us, and so many of you, wish could continue." In July 2024, Wahlberg hinted to fans of his band New Kids on the Block that he might be involved in some sort of follow-up to the series after its "apparent" final season. In an interview before the airing of the second half of season 14, Wahlberg confirmed he would be interested in spin-off ideas. He also said the week of the fall Season 14 premiere on Watch What Happens Live that "there could be some spin-off or off-shoot", a possibility he hinted at again in social media posts ahead of the end of Season 14. He told US Weekly in a video interview that he "certainly thought there were a lot more stories that we could tell with [the character]" and hasn't "closed the door on the character or on somehow if there is something for Danny, somehow incorporating some of the Reagans into that too and some of the other characters from Blue Bloods." For Entertainment Weekly, he outlined an "alternative ending" for his character that could involve another cast member and some appearances from other family members, and suggested it could be a "tease for a spin-off." In the week leading up to the Season 14 finale, Wahlberg said a spin-off has "been discussed" and that he would be "open to carrying on the character" under the right circumstances. Marisa Ramirez told Latin American news outlets that filming the end of season 14 was sad and emotional and that the cast and crew "want to continue, we want more," and that she "would love to continue giving life to Maria [Baez] for another 15 years." She said she would be open to a spin-off involving her character. "I would never turn down something like that. It would be a blessing, which I would accept with open arms." Of the finale, she said "I think there’s a lot of amazing happy moments and a lot of closure, but in some ways, I kind of almost think we could have done more, just a bigger story ... I was happy with it but I guess as happy as one can be with something that’s ending because I didn’t want it to end."
Abigail Hawk, who was a cast member since the first season, said in October 2024 that "none of us wanted the show to end. Every single one of us, regardless of whatever rumors were flying around, was very ready, willing, and able to continue working. Most especially Tom and Len [Cariou]." She added that "we all wanted to continue, this is not something any of us wanted. We felt that there was so much more we could continue telling and sharing and creating." In a separate October 2024 interview Hawk said that "I think there's always hope that once ... these final episodes start airing CBS may go you know even though like the set's gone, the props are gone but like that those things can be rebuilt and if you have the entire cast and crew totally ready and willing to continue I think it's possible that the conversation may happen. I'm not saying it's probable but I think it's possible." She also told Hello Magazine: "Now I think once these episodes start airing, CBS executives may realize that they have made a colossal error and perhaps rethink down the line so I think [continuation] remains possible," adding that "hope floats, and I think it's necessary to have something to hang on to and we would all certainly drop everything and make that happen" and that "there are more stories to be told." She acknowledged that "yes the set is gone, but with the professionals we have in our industry it would take two seconds to rebuild a set like that if it came to that" and that "there's still a little teeny bit of a silver needle somewhere in the hope haystack and I'll hang on to it," and cited the title of Selleck's recent memoir being You Never Know."There's a void left by our show. And I think that, in time, the higher-ups will come to regret it ... I would say that every single one of us as far as the cast is concerned, we are all ready and willing and able to work, to continue."
Steve Schirripa told People "Everyone was really sad [about the show ending] because the ratings were good. We couldn't understand why it got canceled." Moynahan said following the filming of season 14 that cast and crew still felt "disappointed" by the cancellation decision and recalled Selleck returning to set for the season's final filming day of scenes with her and Wahlberg at the 54th precinct squad room set in Greenpoint, Brooklyn after completing his own season 14 filming days earlier with several other cast member at an outdoor funeral scene and the final dinner scene the day before. Selleck, who flew back to New York from California to be on set for the final season 14 filming day, said at the end of season 14 that he was "frustrated" about the cancellation decision, noting the show's continued ratings success that he felt was taken for granted, and reiterated that "there isn't a single one of [the actors] who didn't want to come back." Selleck told Variety in December 2024 that "I can't figure out why they didn't start streaming it, do 10 episodes a year ... Everybody wanted to come back. And I think with this cast, it would have been a gift for the audience." Selleck told Entertainment Weekly that "somebody may be able to tell me someday why CBS wanted to end it, but I haven't had a good answer yet." Asked about participation in a possible spin-off, Selleck said he was "open to suggestions because I love Frank Reagan," but added that he did not see the character retiring and going off to a small town. Wahlberg said in December 2024 he and other cast members still have the feeling of "hoping someone from 'Blue Bloods' is chasing me down the street saying, 'Wait, we're going to do one more season'" and added that ""until we know that there's absolutely no way this show can be resurrected somehow, I think we're all walking forward... but taking a peek back."
The TV Ratings Guide wrote in November 2024 that it was "surprising" that CBS hadn't yet officially announced development of some sort of Blue Bloods continuation given the show's continued ratings success, and noted the possibility of some sort of a follow-up similar to Criminal Minds: Evolution, which had previously been suggested by a writer for Precinct TV. Jack Ori of Screen Rant argued that CBS had made a "mistake" in not officially announcing a spin-off before the series had concluded.
As Season 14 concluded, several commentators questioned the cancellation given the cast willingness to continue and high ratings for the Season 14 finale. In a transcribed conversation for Deadline prompted by the finale of Yellowstone, which took place the same week, Lynette Rice questioned the explanation provided by CBS executives that every show has to come to an end, remarking that "I don’t hear anyone over at CBS saying that about NCIS." Nick Venable wrote for Cinemablend of the finale ratings, including the projected 11.4 million 7-day viewership equal to the live viewership of the Yellowstone finale, "one would think and hope that such impressive numbers would light a metaphorical fire under CBS execs to stick with this series, at least as far as the previously announced franchise-expanding project concerned...I can’t imagine Selleck will ever stop voicing his dismay anytime he’s asked about it, so perhaps we can hold out hope for the characters to return in the future at some point when network execs need a new Friday night staple." Chris McPherson wrote for Collider "maybe [the finale ratings] show us that, as the cast of the series has stated publicly, the show was still performing well and didn't need to be canned." Jack Ori wrote that the ratings make "it even more frustrating that CBS still has not realized that it is killing one of its primary money-makers. Additionally, the Blue Bloods finale itself was open-ended and would work equally well as a season-ender."
In February 2025, CBS officially announced that Donnie Wahlberg would star as Danny Reagan in and be one of the executive producers of a spin-off with the working title Boston Blue, ordered straight-to-series at CBS for the 2025–26 season, set to premiere in fall.
A house in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is used for exterior shots of the Reagan home, with interior scenes filmed at soundstages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Visitors to the set have included President Bill Clinton, who regularly watched the show with Hillary Clinton, Mayor Eric Adams and Congressmember Peter King. Then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman made a guest appearance as himself in a 2016 episode, while former New York City Mayor David Dinkins appeared as himself in a 2018 episode. President Kennedy's grandson Jack Schlossberg acted in a brief cameo role as a police officer in the 2018 season 8 finale. Following the conclusion of Season 14, Congressman King wrote a column for the Long Island Herald praising the show, his interactions with the core cast members during his visits to set, and questioning its cancellation by CBS. Establishing shots and some external filming for the series used the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint for the fictional 29th Precinct and the 25th Precinct in East Harlem for the fictional 54th Precinct.
The series received $79 million in tax breaks from the state of New York for its seasons four through seven and $160 million since 2016. The series received a citation on behalf of New York Governor Kathy Hochul for its contribution to the state's economy over 14 seasons. Line producer Santiago Quinones noted the local economic benefits of the show in advocating for an expansion of the state's tax incentive. Cast members Abigail Hawk, Gregory Jbara and Robert Clohessy have attended the Top Cops awards event organized by the National Association of Police Organizations. The Empire State Building was lit blue by the cast to mark the premiere of the second half of season 14 on October 18, 2024, in partnership with CBS and the Detective Endowments Association Widows' and Children's Fund.
In Australia, the show premiered in February 2011 in a primetime Wednesday slot on Network Ten. Due to poor ratings of the first season, Ten moved the series to its secondary HD channel One alongside White Collar, where it premiered the second season on October 31, 2011. Due to decreased viewership of Ten's primary channel, season three moved back to the primary SD channel from August 26, 2013, and season four returned on March 17, 2014. Foxtel channel TV HITS (styled TV H!TS) later started airing the series from episode 1, weeknights at 8:30 pm AEST.
In Canada, new episodes air on CTV and are available for free for one week after the original air date on the CTV app.
In New Zealand, the show premiered on July 13, 2013, on TV3 replacing CSI: NY in a primetime Saturday slot after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In Ireland, all series have been shown on RTÉ, which is the national broadcaster for the Republic of Ireland.
In the United Kingdom, the show helped launch Sky Atlantic by premiering on Tuesday, February 1, 2011, at 10:30 p.m., with season two returning on October 4, 2011, season three on December 13, 2012, and season four on November 28, 2013. Season five premiered on January 21, 2015. From season 9 new episodes of Blue Bloods moved to Sky Witness and have aired weekly. It is also available on Paramount Plus in the UK up to Season 10.
The series has also been broadcast throughout the Arabic-speaking market through MBC Action.
In fall 2023 as a result of the Hollywood strikes, CBS reaired "classic" episodes based on input from fans on social media, including the season 12 episode "Be Smart or Be Dead," the season 5 finale, the season 11 episode "Happy Endings," the season 10 episode "The Fog of War," the season 8 finale, the Season 9 finale, the season 4 episode "To Protect and Serve," the season 10 finale, the season 11 finale and the season 1 finale.
Every episode is available to stream on Paramount+ in the United States, while seasons 1 through 9 are also available on Hulu.
Reruns of Blue Bloods through Season 14 air nationally in the United States on Wednesdays on Ion Television, although it was briefly removed from the schedule in early 2020. NewsNation previously aired the show daily with a marathon of episodes beginning July 4, 2022, after the show had aired on predecessor channel WGN America. Up TV began airing the program up to Season 7 with episodes every weeknight. Blue Bloods has also reaired on Sundance TV and We TV beginning with Season 8. CBS Media Ventures currently distributes the series to local outlets on weekends, with two episodes being offered. Free streaming service Pluto TV launched a Blue Bloods channel in the U.S. in 2023. Repeats of Blue Bloods haved aired on Pick (2018, showing only 2 seasons) and as of 2025, the first six seasons are being broadcast on 5USA. The show airs twice a day on TV 2 Charlie in Denmark.
Seasons one through 14 have had DVD releases that include special features, with seasons two through six also including audio commentaries on selected episodes.
One early review of the pilot from Hitfix praised the show's commitment to filming in New York City and suggested it could flourish if allowed to develop like The Good Wife and to be more character-driven than procedural. For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 84% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.3/10 and based on 31 reviews. The website's consensus reads: "Blue Bloods features charismatic performances from Donnie Wahlberg and Tom Selleck, intriguing plotlines, and compelling doses of family drama within its police procedural trappings." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 70 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Reviewers have praised the series' on-location shooting. The New York Daily News praised Selleck's performance as Frank Reagan while also praising the family dinner scenes for discussion of morally complex issues.
The Daily News drew comparisons between Selleck's characters Jesse Stone and Frank Reagan, saying that both Reagan and Stone are moral, principled men of few words. In Entertainment Weekly's annual Fall TV Preview, Ken Tucker named Blue Bloods one of the "5 Best New Shows" of 2010.
In late 2014, the magazine Slate's Laura Hudson criticized the show downplaying or apologizing for systemic racism in law enforcement. Similarly, in a 2022 episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver compared the show to an "adult Paw Patrol" and criticized it for perpetuating the myth that police officers could overdose on fentanyl after merely touching it, using clips from a 2017 episode of the show.
Jack Ori wrote for TVFanatic that it was unfair to call the show "copaganda," arguing that it made an effort to showcase multiple points of view to prompt discussion and featured both negative and positive portrayals of police.
In 2017, Selleck was nominated for a People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Crime Drama Actor for his work on the show.
In 2011, Michael Hann, writing for The Guardian, panned the show by calling it "predictable", "trite" and "pisspoor".
As part of its Performer of the Week series, TV Line praised Donnie Wahlberg's performance in the premiere of season eight the performances of Tom Selleck and Will Hochman in the season 13 episode "Nothing Sacred" and Marisa Ramirez's performance in the season 11 premiere.
Some critics called on CBS to rethink its 14th season cancellation decision. Verne Gay of Newsday wrote that "CBS has made a blunder because network TV – approaching mortality itself, and that veritable glue factory – needs shows that are beloved, needs shows about faith, needs shows about New York City, and cops, and the messy political-judicial-socioeconomic ties that bind them. Fourteen years in, Blue Bloods is still that show." In an opinion piece published in the Washington Examiner, Jesse Adams wrote that, "In this atomized age, with more and more viewers lonely and isolated, the Reagans and company feel more like a lot of people's real family than their actual relations... As a sign of respect, and a lucrative opportunity to syndicate some more episodes, let's hope CBS sees reason and greenlights season 15 for a proper farewell." Jack Ori wrote that Tom Selleck was right to be frustrated about CBS' decision to end the show given the ratings and its close-knit cast.
In a review of the penultimate episode of Season 14, Brittany Frederick praised Marisa Ramirez' performance, writing that "sometimes Baez doesn't get as much to do, so it's a plus to give Ramirez a scene that she can really sink her teeth into, and then another scene with Donnie Wahlberg where audiences are reminded of the bond between these two longtime partners." Reviewing the Season 14 finale, Newsday and TV Line praised the performance of Tom Selleck opposite guest star Edward James Olmos as gang member Lorenzo Batista, with TV Line additionally highlighting Eddie and Jamie's pregnancy announcement, the "adorable" scene between Erin and her ex-husband Jack and noting that Danny's partner Baez responded "with just the right amount of warm but knowing smile" to Danny's invitation to a pizza date. While TV Line gave the episode an "A" with "satisfying final arcs" for the main character relationships, the review also noted that the episode "felt a bit too much like any other season…? And that finale was very rushed." Deadline wrote that the finale "[avoided] the pitfalls of many series finales" and "celebrated its characters with the solid storytelling Blue Bloods has been putting on the small screen for 14 years. Jack Ori wrote that while the dinner scene was a "perfect way" to end the series, the episode also showed that "there COULD have been many more stories to tell if only CBS had found a way to keep it on the air" and suggested that the finale should have been two hours because "there was too much to fit into the final hour," adding later that the "final episode should have been a season finale, not a series finale." For Screenrant, Jack Ori outlined eight reasons the finale was a "perfect ending" for the Reagan family, but also emphasized that the open-ended nature of the episode left the door open for sequels or spin-offs, and also highlighted several unanswered questions left by the finale. Ori also called the finale one of the 16 best episodes of network TV in 2024. Brittany Frederick praised the theme of family in the finale, but also wrote that several "plotlines fall into the show's trap of quickly resolving things either on or off-screen to tie it all up too neatly" and that "many things that could and should have played out are implied or rushed through." Michael Weyer wrote that the finale "leaves fans wanting so much more" and that "given all these plot threads, so much in the air, to just leave fans hanging seems unfair...and promising some major developments and not following through on them is annoying." In a later piece, he highlighted possible spin-offs for CBS to consider, and suggested that one featuring Danny and Baez would be "the most obvious spinoff idea." For Looper, Melissa Lemieux highlighted four ways in which the finale failed, including the absence of Maria Baez at the family dinner. In TV Insider, Matt Roush wrote that the finale aimed to "give viewers a sense of continuity and a hint at where [the characters] are heading, in most cases happily. While there was tragedy (the funeral for Eddie’s partner), there was more importantly a reminder that this would not be the last Reagan family dinner, just the last one we would be invited to observe for now." Roger Friedman wrote that the finale was "modest" and that "If the show returns — as Tom Selleck has begged, pleaded, and demanded — the segue would be seamless."
Newsday highlighted the final season as part of its look at the best TV shows of 2024.
Father Raymond J. de Souza called the series "the most Catholic show on network television" and praised the show for being "character-driven" as a "pro-police show at time when policing itself has become controversial," and highlighted the running theme of fatherhood throughout the series and the finale.
The pilot episode garnered 15.258 million viewers because of the Live + 7 days after with viewings from DVRs. Without the DVR adding to the live viewing the show's debut episode garnered a total of 13.02 million viewers.
Overall, the ratings have been steady for the series, after the pilot episode. The lowest viewer total through the first seven seasons was 8.88 million in episode eight of season seven (which ran against Game 3 of the 2016 World Series); it was one of the few episodes through the first seven seasons that had fewer than 9 million initial-broadcast viewers. The second-season finale on May 11, 2012, was watched by 10.73 million viewers and received a 1.2/4 ratings/share among adults ages 18–49. The highest (non-pilot) live viewership of 12.93 million occurred in episode 14 of season four ("Manhattan Queens"), which was the series' 81st episode.
In January 2013, CBS announced via press release that Blue Bloods was the first scripted Friday series in 10 years to average at least 13 million viewers (live + 7), gaining eight percent more viewers than the previous year. The second season of CSI in 2001 had 14.78 million viewers, while the fourth season of Law & Order: SVU in 2003 had 14.92 million.
From season eight onward, ratings have declined. Season nine was the first season with no episodes reaching 10 million first-run viewers, although Blue Bloods still ranked as the eighth most watched program in 2018–19 Live + 7 viewership. Season nine also saw the lowest first-run viewership for any episode to date (7.62 million for episode 14, "My Brother's Keeper").
For the first half of season 14, it ranked at number six for scripted series in all viewers in Live + 7 ratings with an average of 8.4 million viewers and was one of the shows to average more than 10 million viewers after 35 days of viewing including on streaming platforms. According to TV Line, the show was among the top ten scripted entertainment programs during the 2024 - 2025 season with delayed viewing included. Fall 2024 ratings generally increased around 50 percent in Live+7 delayed Nielsen ratings. The show had the eighth highest average viewership in delayed viewing without sports or news broadcasts, according to TV Guide. According to CBS, the fall season 14 premiere was one of eight CBS shows to reach ten million viewers after seven days with multiplatform streaming and delayed viewing included, and the show reached an average of 9.8 million viewers after 35 days including delayed and multi-platform viewing. The Season 14 finale saw a same-day audience of 6.68 million viewers, the largest overnight audience of the season, CBS said, citing VideoAmp data due to a contract dispute with Nielsen, which VideoAmp and CBS Research estimated could reach a 7-day multiplatform audience of 11.4 million, and the hashtag #BlueBloodsFinale, as promoted by star Donnie Wahlberg's social media posts during the airing, was among the top 10 Twitter trends for twelve hours on the finale airdate, peaking at #1, and gathering around 140 million potential social impressions. The Season 14 finale also saw an initial spike in viewing on Paramount Plus. TV Line reported in February 2025 that the finale had 11 million multiplatform viewers after 35 days per Nielsen data, up from 5.9 million overnight viewers. The finale had the show's highest viewership since April 2023, and 8.8 million viewers in Live+7 Nielsen viewership. After its contract dispute with Paramount was resolved, Nielsen noted in a release that the 14th season was in the top ten shows every month during the fall.
The TV Ratings Guide noted at the end Season 14 that while "Blue Bloods faltered a bit recently in both linear ratings and multi-platform. It still went out as a highly-viewed series, and it’s doubtful anything will match its ratings in that time slot ... Being the only show to air in the time slot regularly since 2010, CBS may find themselves coming back to the Blue Bloods IP eventually if they can’t get anything to work in the time slot long-term." The analysis further stated that though "Blue Bloods has become one of CBS’s lowest-rated shows on the linear schedule in the key Adults 18-49 demo ...[it] is still allowed to go out with the dignity of being one of only seven dramas across the broadcast networks to average above 5 million viewers Live + Same Day this season." According to TV Line, the series was broadcast TV's fourth most watched drama in delayed viewing in fall 2024, with an analysis noting that "Benching the well-watched Blue Bloods is clearly going to sting and put pressure on Friday’s new NCIS: Sydney/Fire Country/S.W.A.T slate." Screenrant called CBS' decision-making that placed S.W.A.T. in Blue Bloods' timeslot after its cancellation "perplexing" and "bizarre" given Blue Bloods' higher ratings. After CBS' full new Friday schedule aired in February 2025, TV Line reported that "leading out of NCIS: Sydney, Fire Country delivered 4.2 million total viewers, up 15% from last week. S.W.A.T. then closed out CBS’ night with 3.4 million total viewers, up 12% week-to-week but still well shy of the cancelled Blue Bloods’ fall average (5.07 mil)." The same week, The TV Ratings Guide noted of the top ten programs on streaming service Paramount Plus, that "ended CBS series Blue Bloods charted more times this week than any ongoing CBS drama besides NCIS, with four appearances on the chart." In March 2025, Screenrant noted the decline in ratings during the time slot after the Blue Bloods cancellation, and the subsequent cancellation of S.W.A.T. In April 2025, CBS announced that with the eight episodes in the fall, the series was one of ten to reach ten million or more views in multi-platform viewers after 35 days, and was the 6th most viewed non-sports series in delayed broadcast only viewing.
The series has performed well on streaming platform Paramount Plus, regularly among the top ten shows on the platform.
Analysts from entertainment analytics company Parrot Analytics have pointed to Blue Bloods as an example of long-running procedurals that still see strong audience demand.
In 2012, producer Brian Burns was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for the Season 2 episode "The Job." In 2021, the show was awarded the TV Faith & Freedom Award for season 10, episode 19, "Family Secrets" at the MovieGuide Awards. Writer producer Siobhan Byrne O'Connor was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2012 for the episode "Innocence," in 2015 for the episode "Unfinished Business" and in 2023 for the episode "The Reagan Way." Kevin Wade was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2019 for the episode "My Aim is True."