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Blue Bloods may have ended in 2024, but the Reagan family legacy is far from over. The series has continued on with spinoff Boston Blue on the 2026 TV schedule, following Donnie Wahlberg’s Danny Reagan in the titular Massachusetts capital. It’s been a success so far, with a second season on the way later this year. However, the series was not originally pitched with Wahlberg until a network note changed things forever.
When Blue Bloods was canceled, many fans, and even cast members, advocated for more seasons. There had been reports that either a spinoff or a movie could be happening, and Boston Blue was officially announced in early 2025. Wahlberg previously revealed that the show didn’t start as a Blue Bloods spinoff, with creators Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier developing a different family cop drama. The NKOTB member, meanwhile, was almost sent to Texas for a different Blue Bloods spinoff.
The series that the Brandons and Jerry Bruckheimer were floating around would have involved a police officer in L.A. moving to Boston to work with his son, a rookie cop at the BPD. While the idea was intriguing, CBS had one note that ended up changing the direction of the show to something much better, as Margolis recalled to the Television Academy, via TV Insider:
The idea was floated by CBS to Jerry Bruckheimer Television to us: ‘What if that cop from L.A. was actually Danny Reagan instead?' And we were like, ‘Are we allowed to do that? Because yeah, we would do that!'
It sounds like the network jumped at the chance to make a Blue Bloods spinoff happen. They just needed to find the right concept, and the Brandons and Bruckheimer just so happened to have the perfect one. It just needed a few tweaks. Not surprisingly, they were all on board, and Sonnier couldn’t have been happier with how it played out:
[It was the] best network note we’ve ever gotten.
It is pretty interesting to know that just one note really changed everything. It’s possible that we would have eventually gotten a Blue Bloods spinoff had Boston Blue not moved forward or stayed with the original pitch, but this is definitely better. While the show includes a mostly new cast, fans have seen some of their favorite Blue Bloods characters, and with Season 2 coming soon, it’s possible that even more will be appearing.
Knowing how Boston Blue came to be makes sense in terms of Wahlberg’s involvement. Since Blue Bloods was an ensemble, it was hard to predict who would get a spinoff, even with Tom Selleck championing for Blue Bloods’ return. This does make me wonder how many other spinoffs started off as slightly different pitches thanks to one note, and I’m glad the note changed Boston Blue for the better. The series will return for Season 2 this fall on CBS, but the first season, as well as all 14 seasons of Blue Bloods, are streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
