14 years into its run, CBS’s hit police procedural Blue Bloods was canceled, leaving its fans and actors devastated—none more than its co-lead, Donnie Wahlberg.
“Nobody was more disappointed than me,” Wahlberg, 56, told Obsessed: The Podcast host Kevin Fallon. “Nobody shed more tears than me. Nobody was shocked more than me, and nobody fought harder to keep the show on the air than me.”
Wahlberg also revealed Bruce Willis’s advice to him on the set of The Sixth Sense, how an overseas war interrupted his Super Bowl halftime show with New Kids on the Block, and how he helped give Jennifer Lopez her big break.
Despite consistently ranking among the top 10 highest-rated TV shows for most of its 14-season run, CBS cancelled the show in 2024, citing the high cost of retaining its cast and crew. The show’s father-son duo, Tom Selleck and Wahlberg, were among the many actors and producers who took a 25% pay cut for its final season.
“I stopped being able to work with friends, and our crew lost their jobs,” Wahlberg said, who played Detective Danny Reagan. “I know all of us in the cast felt a personal responsibility for that. When our crew lost their jobs, I felt like I let them down personally.”
At an average of 73 years old, Blue Bloods claimed the oldest median age of any primetime series in 2024. The older-than-average audience became the show’s calling card. Wahlberg thinks this was the key to their success.
“Most television shows are looking for that 18–45 demographic of viewers. And here, this show kind of turned that upside down. Blue Bloods definitely turned that upside down," Wahlberg said.
“Ironically, that’s why it defied the odds and lasted so long,” he added.
Now, the former New Kid on the Block is reprising his detective role in a new spinoff of his beloved show. In Boston Blue, which airs on CBS, Wahlberg’s Detective Reagan becomes the central character.
“I want to say this the right way. If I didn’t care for Blue Bloods so much, I wouldn’t be doing Boston Blue,“ Wahlberg told Fallon. ”This was the only way that Danny Reagan could continue being on television, and therefore, any other Reagan, by extension, can stay on television. This was the only way."
Boston Blue will return to CBS from its midseason break on February 27.
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