The Secret to Blue Bloods’ Success: How the CBS Drama Endured for 14 Seasons and Fans Still Want More

What is the secret to Blue Bloods' success? We have some thoughts about why its superfans will never let it go.

The post The Secret to Blue Bloods’ Success: How the CBS Drama Endured for 14 Seasons and Fans Still Want More appeared first on TV Fanatic.

Blue Bloods ended in December 2024, but superfans will never stop mourning its loss.

I’m one of them. I haven’t deleted the final episode from my DVR, but I am thrilled Paramount+ has all the reruns, so I can visit the Reagan family whenever I want.

It’s very rare for a series to last 14 years to begin with, never mind have such a loyal fanbase that the fight for more episodes will go on forever. However, there are some strong reasons for Blue Bloods‘ success in a TV landscape where so many shows fail.

Blue Bloods’ Success Comes From Its Strong Family Values

When Blue Bloods began in 2010, family dramas were far more common, by the time it ended, it was one of the only television shows that repeatedly showcased a close family dealing with relatable issues.

I bristle when people call it a police procedural. Yes, it has cases of the week and cops doing cop things, but that’s not exactly what this show is.

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Family is central. The important thing about the cases is that they’re the everyday job of three generations of cops who also eat dinner together every Sunday.

And sadly, that’s something that’s all too uncommon, both on TV and in real life, today.

In one of the later episodes, Frank says the tradition of families bonding over a shared meal is sadly eroding in modern society and that he is grateful for every minute he gets with his kids (a sentiment he repeats during the final scene of the series finale).

And THAT is what keeps people coming back to this show, week after week, year after year, and why the cancellation angered so many people.

Almost every article about this show talks about how special its emphasis on family is. I know I’ve written plenty about it before.

So let’s dive deeper into how the family aspects supercharged Blue Bloods’ success.

It’s common nowadays for procedurals to have subplots about the cops’ families.

Law & Order: SVU used to do this well at the beginning, integrating Stabler’s family life with the cases he and Benson investigated.

However, no show made the family as CENTRAL as Blue Bloods did.

It wasn’t just that there was a side story about a family issue. Family came first, with the cases being secondary.

Think about it. How many would you recall if I asked you to describe the cases on Blue Bloods Season 14?

I couldn’t do it, for the most part. A couple of Danny moments stand out, and something about Jamie being undercover.

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The cases could be about anything. Even though they sometimes made strong points, they often didn’t stick in my mind like the family aspects did.

Blue Bloods’ Success Came From Deliberately Centering Families

It wasn’t a coincidence that family was so important to this show.

It was a deliberate choice. The first scene ever shot was the first family dinner scene, and Tom Selleck’s final scene was another family dinner scene.

The producers wanted to see if it would work — and when they experimented with just being a regular procedural, Selleck shot that down quickly, refusing to continue working on the series if it wasn’t family-focused.

Those family dinner scenes became iconic and Blue Bloods included them in every single one of its 293 episodes.

When the news of the cancellation spread, the comment I saw most often on social media was that people would miss the dinners.

For some folks, the Reagan family dinners on Blue Bloods were the ultimate wish fulfillment — the close-knit family they wished they had in real life.

For others, they were a reflection of the families they did have, or had at one point in their lives.

The Reagan family had gone through some traumatic experiences, both on and off-screen. Joe Reagan’s death was always a shadow hanging over them, and Linda’s premature end at the beginning of Blue Bloods Season 8 was painful too.

Sometimes they dealt with problems specific to law enforcement, like the time Danny had to shoot a carjacker in front of his son, leaving his son fearful.

Other times, it was more mundane issues relatable to everyone, like not being able to afford car repairs or not finding the right balance between work and personal time.

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Whatever the problems were, the Reagans banded together and got through them together, demonstrating that you can deal with almost anything if you go through it with people you love.

That’s a message we need more of right now, and it sucks that the show has been taken off the air right when we need it most.

Blue Bloods Handled Controversial Issues In A Different Way Than Other Shows

The other big reason for Blue Bloods’ success was how well it united people.

As a show that was proudly pro-cop, dedicated to depicting the NYPD in the fairest and most positive light possible, it appealed strongly to people on the conservative side of the political spectrum.

It also appealed to those of us who are more liberal politically and don’t necessarily agree with every position on the show.

Family values are universal, so that’s a big part of why the show was so appealing to almost everybody. But I also think it did something no other show does nowadays: it let the audience make up their own minds about issues.

Blue Bloods was not political in the sense that shows like Madam Secretary were.

It didn’t endorse a specific political position, unless you consider love of family and support for police officers to belong exclusively to one part of the political spectrum.

It presented plenty of issues related to modern law enforcement.

Frank always had to make decisions about political issues, often driving his staff nuts by doing what he thought was right even though it didn’t look great.

Issues such as how cops should handle suspects with mental health issues, whether bail reform laws in New York were appropriate, and whether police shootings of Black suspects were part of institutional racism were all addressed regularly.

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However, unlike most shows, Blue Bloods never tells the audience how to feel about these issues. Frank, Erin, and other characters had their points of view, but at the end of the day, those were part of the story.

The characters felt what they felt, but it didn’t feel as if the writers were imposing opinions on the audience, which was HUGE.

It was what made me feel comfortable as an openly transgender man with an episode in which Baez admitted to Danny that she was uncomfortable with a transgender victim.

The story wasn’t told from the point of view of some echo chamber where trans people were all vilified, nor did it vilify Baez for not being 100% on board when she’d never met a trans person before.

In fact, I’d argue that an episode like this, in which different points of view were acceptable, does more to spark discussions than all the liberal messaging in the world.

Blue Bloods’ Success Was Partially Because It Was So Special To NYPD Cops

One of Blue Bloods’ secondary missions was to depict the NYPD fairly.

It really rubs me the wrong way when anti-cop activists call that “copaganda.” This show wasn’t about painting an overly rosy portrait of the NYPD where nobody could do any wrong.

Over the years, the series has featured many corrupt cops, starting with the one who killed Joe Reagan.

Frank and his family condemned these cops for disgracing the badge with their bad behavior.

There were all sorts of cops on Blue Bloods over the years. Good cops, cops who meant well but made big mistakes, older cops who were stuck in their ways, younger cops who were overly idealistic…

Overall, Blue Bloods did a great job showing that cops are human and educating the public on some of the pressures they feel on the job.

That took courage in a climate where everyone is all-or-nothing and many people subscribe to a philosophy that the police should be abolished altogether.

Because of its strong stance, law enforcement professionals and those with a more nuanced view of the issues in modern policing flocked to Blue Bloods.

Why do YOU Think Blue Bloods Was So Successful?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, Blue Bloods Fanatics.

Head to the comments to tell us what you love and miss about Blue Bloods.

All 14 seasons of Blue Bloods are available to stream on Paramount+.

Watch Blue Bloods Online

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The post The Secret to Blue Bloods’ Success: How the CBS Drama Endured for 14 Seasons and Fans Still Want More appeared first on TV Fanatic.