The Reagans have shared their final family dinner. After fourteen highly successful seasons, Blue Bloods has officially come to an end on CBS
and for the cast, the goodbye is still far from settled. That includes Tom Selleck, who spent more than a decade portraying Frank Reagan, the New York City police commissioner and the steadfast patriarch at the heart of the series.
In a candid conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Selleck reflected on what it has meant to play Frank Reagan for nearly fifteen years and opened up about the emotional weight of filming the series finale.
“I don’t think it goes away that quickly,” Selleck admitted. Although the final episode was shot months before it aired, the reality of the show ending has taken time to sink in. “It just takes an enormous amount of getting used to,” he said, noting that the continued interviews and the show’s ongoing success have made the transition even harder. “Especially for a show where everybody wanted to come back.”
When asked about filming the final episode, Selleck explained that the last day of shooting was filled with activity and little time to pause. For him, the true goodbye came a day earlier, during the filming of the final Reagan family dinner the moment that quietly marked the end of his journey on the series.
“We did our work for six or seven hours and didn’t dwell on it,” he recalled. “Then someone said, ‘Well, we have to wrap it,’ and it got very quiet.” No speeches were planned, but the silence called for something to be said. Selleck shared a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love Is Not All,” which sparked a heartfelt conversation that lasted for hours. “There were tears, hugs group hugs, single hugs. Nobody wanted it to end.”
Though his involvement on the show had concluded, Selleck felt compelled to be present for the final moments. He flew back to New York to watch the cast film the last scene, describing the experience as deeply emotional. “We loved the show,” he said. “It was a blessing for fifteen years.”
Selleck reflected on the rare bond the series created, explaining that Blue Bloods gave him not one family, but two. “We had the Reagan family we portrayed,” he said, “and very quickly, we had this family of actors who all actually liked each other which almost never happens in television.” That connection, he added, is what makes the ending especially difficult.
The hardest part now, he admitted, is the absence of routine. “At this time of year, I would be shooting episodes of Blue Bloods, and I miss that,” he said. More than anything, he misses the friendships formed over fifteen years. Unlike a film project that ends after a few months, this was a relationship built over more than a decade. “It doesn’t go away that fast,” he said. “It’s a much bigger adjustment.”
Looking back on how the series shaped him as an actor, Selleck said the long running role continually pushed him to grow. “I always believe an actor’s commitment should look like, ‘Here goes nothing,’” he explained. “But it’s really ‘Here goes everything.’” While he once feared that playing the same character for fifteen years might lead to complacency, that never happened. “I was never bored,” he said proudly, adding that no one in the cast ever “phoned in” a performance.
Selleck credited the writers for allowing the characters to evolve alongside the actors themselves. “Fifteen years is a long time,” he noted. “You change physically, emotionally in every way. All of that becomes part of the character.” He views that experience as something he’ll carry forward, emphasizing that he has no plans to stop working.
Ultimately, Selleck hopes audiences remember Blue Bloods for how it ended not as a tired series, but as one that left on a high note. “My biggest goal is for people to realize we went out in spectacular success,” he said. “It wasn’t worn out.” While he still doesn’t fully understand why the network chose to end it, he remains proud of what the show accomplished and grateful for the fifteen year journey that changed his life.