Tom Selleck Speaks Out After CBS Airs ‘Blue Bloods’ Finale, Doesn’t Have ‘Good Answer’ About Cancellation

Tom Selleck admitted that he’s still getting used to the fact that Blue Bloods has been canceled after 14 years. The legendary actor spoke out one day after the show’s series finale aired on CBS on December 13.

“I’m grateful to say, and the writers continued to see the evolution in the characters and let them grow and change,” he told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on December 14, adding, “15 years is a long time, and you change physically, you change every other way. You’re just older. At a certain point, all those things entered into what I’ll put in my little actor’s handbook and use, because I certainly don’t intend to stop working.”

After 14 seasons on air and owning the Friday night ratings on CBS, Tom, 79, still wonders why the network decided to end the show for good.

“My biggest goal is to make sure people realize we went out in rather spectacular success,” he told the outlet. “It wasn’t tired, it wasn’t anything else. Somebody may be able to tell me someday why CBS wanted to end it, but I haven’t had a good answer yet.”

It’s a sentiment he’s echoed throughout the press tour for the show’s final season.

“I can’t figure out why they didn’t start streaming it, do 10 episodes a year,” he told Variety about the show’s cancellation on December 12. “But I’m not the boss. Everybody wanted to come back. And I think with this cast, it would have been a gift for the audience. I don’t make those decisions. I’m prepared to celebrate and commemorate this show, but I’m still getting used to it.”

Tom explained that this is the time of year that he would typically be filming more episodes of Blue Bloods. Of course all that has changed now, as the series will not be returning for a 15th season.

“The thing that tugged at me most in adjusting and will continue is the family of actors we had and the friendships we formed,” the Jesse Stone actor said. “And you always say it’s kind of like high school graduation. Everybody says they’ll keep in touch and things happen. Well, that happens in movies too. You say you do a movie, establish relationships, and then it’s over.”

“This is a more complicated one,” Tom added. “It’s a 15-year relationship with most of those people, and it just doesn’t go away that fast. It’s hard — on a movie, you always say, ‘Well, let’s get together,’ and then you get busy or you work somewhere else and a couple of years go by, but this is just a bigger adjustment.”

There were an array of different story lines for each character that were tied up in the series finale, including Frank Reagan confronting the father of a gang leader while visiting him in prison. The episode ended with one final prayer from Frank.

“You know we got a lot to be thankful for, and I look around this table and I got to say, I couldn’t be more proud or grateful,” Frank said at the final family dinner in the series finale.