Entertainment
Len Cariou Says ‘Blue Bloods’ Cancellation ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense’: ‘It’s Too Bad’
Tom Selleck isn’t the only Blue Bloods cast member who has voiced disappointment that the show is ending after 14 seasons. Len Cariou, who portrays Henry Reagan in the series, reacted to the program’s cancellation after 10 years on-air.
“Yeah, it’s too bad. Doesn’t make any sense,” he told TV Insider in an interview published on November 8. “We’re still, I think, the best-watched show on Friday nights, even though we’re canceled.”
Blue Bloods has become a Friday night staple in millions of homes across the U.S. for folks who have loved being part of the Reagan family dinners each week. For many, watching the final episodes air has been rather emotional.
“And I think when they launched us there Friday nights, think about 14, 15 years ago — we weren’t really thrilled with Friday night at 10,” he told the outlet. “Friday has not been — was at least at that point not really a very popular time, the first show on the weekends, and we thought, well, it’s not a very good time slot.”
Henry, 85, said that Tom, 79, is a huge part of the reason why the show was able to succeed in that time slot. The latter TV star first earned notoriety on CBS with Magnum, P.I. from 1980 to 1988.
“But because of Tom, and I think he has such a great following on CBS, that once they saw the show, they said, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. It’s really good. So they’ll make it work on Fridays,’” Henry recalled. “And they thought about moving us to another night way back then, and we said, I think Mr. Goldberg said, ‘No, we’ll own Friday nights.’ And sure enough, we did.”
But sadly, CBS maintains that all good things must come to an end. The series began airing the final episodes of season 14 in October.
“We really want to thank the cast and crew, everyone involved in the show,” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach told reporters in May. “We absolutely will miss the family dinners. It is important to give show the sendoff it deserves.”
“We love this cast, we love their passion for the show,” the statement continued. “All shows have to come to an end. It’s important to us to refresh the schedule. We are going to end the show come December.”
So far, no official spinoff has been announced by the network, but fans are still holding out hope that the show or its characters will return to TV in some capacity in years to come.
As for how the series will end, fan theories suggest a major character will get killed off. Some viewers think Danny Reagan, played by Donnie Wahlberg, might get the ax after he appeared to be struggling with physical exhaustion in season 14, episode 13. Others wonder if a dramatic conversation at a Reagan family dinner foreshadowed Henry’s death.
Blue Bloods airs on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, and streams on Paramount+.
