Blue Bloods showrunner explains why there won't be a spinoff

Blue Bloods gets a little bit closer to the end every week. The show has a finale in sight, despite the fact that several of the cast members have lobbied to keep it going past season 14. Even if the show doesn't get renewed, there's been speculation about a Blue Bloods spinoff.

During a recent TV Insider piece, insider Matt Roush expressed surprise at the fact that CBS hasn't launched a spinoff set in the same universe. "Continuing the Blue Bloods universe with an adjacent character makes a lot of sense," he told fans. "I’d be surprised if they haven’t already started kicking around some ideas."

Kevin Wade shut down the spinoff rumors

The thing is, Blue Bloods showrunner Kevin Wade addressed the idea of a spinoff in 2023. He felt as though green-lighting a spinoff would be a core misunderstanding of the show, and told Pop Culture he would prefer to leave things as they are. "Blue Bloods was never about the initials," Wade posited. "Whether it was CSI or NCIS or FBI, it just isn't, it's about the family."

Wade has a point. He expanded on his case against a Blue Bloods spinoff by claiming that it would be difficult to find actors who could live up to the legacy set by the show main's cast. He went as far as to say that Blue Bloods was more identified with actors like Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg than it is the title or the police work that it depicts:

"You can't replicate the family. You could take the idea of a law enforcement family in another city, obviously, but Blue Bloods is kind of a one-off, starting with Tom Selleck."

Wade's take is valid, and it's refreshing to hear a showrunner discuss a show on the merits of its quality rather than its franchise potential down the line. Blue Bloods has, of course, been a wildly successful title for a decade and a half, so Wade has been able to juggle artistry and appeal well.

Donnie Wahlberg would be open to returning

That said, there's still a world in which CBS orders a spinoff without Wade's involvement. Wahlberg's recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show saw him voice hope over the possibility of getting a spinoff:

"Maybe there’s still some way that it’ll end up surviving and carrying on in a different way."

Regardless of what Wade and the network decide to do, fans can rest assured that the current season of Blue Bloods is being made with the utmost care.