Why Tom Selleck Still Hopes BLUE BLOODS Will Be Renewed
By Movieguide® Contributor
Though BLUE BLOODS has been officially canceled by CBS since last fall, Tom Selleck is still hopeful that the network will reverse its decision, a sentiment fueled by a fight he had with a network in the past.
“I will continue to think that CBS will come to their senses. We’re the third-highest scripted show in all of broadcast. We’re winning the night. All the cast wants to come back. And I can tell you this—we aren’t sliding off down a cliff, we’re doing good shows and still holding our place,” Selleck told CBS News.
BLUE BLOODS was canceled last year despite its high ratings due to rising costs of production. However, after the main cast agreed to a major pay cut, the show was allowed to run a final season, which was then broken up between the spring and fall due to strike-related delays. Selleck, however, has continued to fight for CBS to renew the show.
“CBS will find an awful lot of people aren’t ready to say goodbye to it,” Selleck said. “We’re certainly not out of ideas.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has pushed back against a network’s decision that he believed was wrong. When shooting for MAGNUM P.I. began in the ’80s, CBS wanted the show to drop the plot point that Thomas Magnum had served in the Vietnam War. Selleck, however, felt this was an important characteristic of the show and fought to keep it in.
When the show ended after eight seasons, it was memorialized in the Smithsonian Museum. Selleck’s fight to keep the Vietnam War plot point was a large reason why.
“When MAGNUM ended, we got a call from the Smithsonian and they said, ‘We want to honor MAGNUM. We need some artifacts,’” Selleck recalled. “They took my hat and the ring I wore, the team ring in Vietnam, and my Hawaiian shirt, the red one. And when we went back there and they read the citation, they gave us credit for being the first show that showed Vietnam veterans in a positive light. So, the fight was worth it.”
While the fight for BLUE BLOODS likely won’t end in a Smithsonian memorial, Selleck believes the series isn’t over until it’s over, and he isn’t ready to retire yet.
“I’m not counting the days so I can do something else,” he told TV Insider. “I love the work. Sometimes the hours are a little harder because I’m older, but so what? I want work as long as they’ll have me.”
His enduring fight has encouraged many fans to take action as well and cause a stir on social media to prove to CBS that the show is worth the price.
Movieguide® previously reported:
CBS announced last November that BLUE BLOODS would end after Season 14, but fans are doing all they can to keep their favorite show alive.
The fan-led “Save BLUE BLOODS” campaign hopes to encourage CBS to keep the show running.
X account, @SaveBlueBloods, “urges fans every week to tweet about the series to get it trending while new episodes air on Fridays, and it often tweets about the show’s ratings to keep the word out about how popular the show is among viewers,” TV Insider reported.
“Their aim is to ‘cancel the cancel,’ and they’re hoping social media noise and an online petition will help their efforts. It’s also in the process of collecting fan videos from set visits in New York that will be compiled as a tribute to the show,” the outlet added.
The account’s petition currently has over 12,000 signatures and hopes to attain even more.
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