Blue Bloods' Boss Attributes The Show's Massive Success To One Thing

By Lex Briscuso
Tom Selleck as Commissioner Frank Reagan, wearing a grey sweater and a black vest with a white collared shirt underneath and round glasses, while sitting and looking at someone off-camera in Blue Bloods CBS

Showrunner Kevin Wade has seen major success with the epic 14-season run of "Blue Bloods" on CBS — and he attributes that success to one specific thing the series did over the course of nearly 300 episodes.

"I think that people appreciated the show didn't have an agenda," the executive producer told Deadline. "That's the thing we worked hardest on, and it was something that could easily, in some hands, have slipped into preachiness. We didn't take sides."

The outlet pushed back on that claim, asserting that some fans and audience members saw the series as "red state," apparently meaning that they identified conservative leanings within the series. Wade didn't shy away from that point of view, but he did note how the series expanded upon that assertion in its writing. "That may be," Wade said, "but if we had a motto, the motto was, if you're going to build a soap box for one side of an issue, build a soap box of equal dimensions for the other side so that the audience could not feel like they were being preached to."

Blue Bloods highlights multiple perspectives

Donnie Wahlberg as detective Danny Reagan, wearing a blue suit and white collared shirt, sitting on a green park bench next to Commissioner Frank Reagan, wearing a dark navy vest and pants with a jacket on his knee and a blue and red striped tie, in Blue Bloods CBS

Wade isn't the only "Blue Bloods" creative who has felt this way about the series. Star Donnie Wahlberg, who plays detective Danny Reagan, previously opened up with a similar sentiment. "What's great about our show is that we get to explore these issues from all sides ..." Wahlberg revealed during an interview with "CBS This Morning" (via CBS News) during the show's 6th season, "because each family member has their own take on these different things."

Overall, the series does tend align with its main character, Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), and his seemingly conservative-leaning ideals, including an unwavering allegiance to the law, deep trust in faith, and a focus on preserving and strengthening the family unit. But it's also fair to say that the series regularly puts other perspectives in the spotlight too, particularly through other Reagans, like Erin (Bridget Moynihan), an assistant district attorney who is arguably the most liberal member of the family.

Ultimately, Wade's approach allowed for a wide audience to connect with one of the best police procedurals ever, and that gave us 14 years of emotionally driven story and a brand-new "Blue Bloods" spinoff series, "Boston Blue." That's a major win.

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