Blue Bloods showrunner Kevin Wade is refusing to distance himself from Boston Blue, the CBS spinoff that conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly has labeled a "woke version" of the long-running police drama. In a recent sit-down with O'Reilly on his No Spin News program, Wade declined to criticize the new series, saying instead that he is rooting for its success, according to Deadline and TheWrap.
The exchange centered on O'Reilly's contention that Boston Blue, which follows Danny Reagan after his move from New York to Boston, represents a deliberate ideological shift by network executives. "Boston Blue is woke. I mean, they got every ethnicity in the world coming in there. I don't know who's who, I can't keep track of where these people are from and what they're doing," O'Reilly said, contrasting it with what he described as the "Irish Catholic traditional" makeup of Blue Bloods. He went on to ask Wade directly whether "the suits in Hollywood" had decided to cancel the original show in favor of a version that could generate similar profits under a different demographic banner.
Wade, who ran Blue Bloods from 2011 until its conclusion, did not accept that framing. Instead, he turned the conversation toward the practical benefits of a hit franchise continuing in a new form. "Anytime something is providing jobs for actors and the huge amount of people that are employed as crew, I'm happy for them, and I root for it," Wade said, according to both Deadline and TheWrap. He specifically praised Donnie Wahlberg, who reprises his role as Detective Danny Reagan in the spinoff, calling his performance "a terrific job" based on what he has seen.
Notably, Wade told O'Reilly he has only watched the pilot and a couple of additional episodes of Boston Blue, adding that he does not watch much network television these days. That admission suggests his endorsement is less a review of the new show's content and more a statement of professional solidarity with former colleagues and the broader television workforce that depends on such productions staying on the air.
A Cast Change And A New City
Boston Blue emerged after CBS announced that Blue Bloods' fourteenth season, which aired in 2024, would be its last. The spinoff premiered last October and quickly distinguished itself from its predecessor with a notably more diverse ensemble. Where Blue Bloods centered on the Reagans, a family of white Roman Catholic police officers in Brooklyn, Boston Blue relocated Danny Reagan to a new department and surrounded him with a cast that includes Sonequa Martin-Green, Ernie Hudson, Maggie Lawson, Gloria Reuben and Marcus Scribner. The character of Danny's son Sean was also recast, with Mika Amonsen taking over the role after Andrew Terraciano played him throughout Blue Bloods' run, according to Deadline.
The show's early performance appears to have satisfied CBS. The network gave Boston Blue an early renewal for a second season in December, and both Deadline and TheWrap report that the new season is set to premiere on October 9.
No Political Agenda, Wade Says Of The Original
O'Reilly pressed further, asking Wade whether he had faced network pressure over concerns that Blue Bloods leaned too far to the right in its politics or its audience appeal. Wade rejected the idea that the show operated with any deliberate political slant, even while acknowledging its cultural positioning. "I don't think there was a political agenda because although 'Blue Bloods' I think was perceived as a maybe a right-leaning show, it was certainly about a family of white Roman Catholic Brooklyn cops, and cops and law enforcement in general tend to lean to the right," Wade said, as quoted by TheWrap.
He described what he called the show's "secret sauce" for longevity: a consistent effort to present opposing viewpoints with equal weight whenever the series tackled contentious issues. "If we had a little secret sauce, it was that when we built a soapbox for one side, we tried to make sure to build a soapbox of equal dimensions for the other side of an issue," Wade said, according to Deadline. He noted that the writers' room took on numerous social and political issues over the course of the show's run, but did so with the intention of avoiding the sense that the audience was being lectured.
"I think that if there was a reason for its success, it was that people didn't feel preached to. They didn't feel like we were telling them what to think, or how to think, or what side was the right side," Wade said.
That balancing act, Wade suggested, is part of what allowed Blue Bloods to run for fourteen seasons on CBS, becoming one of the network's signature dramas before its cancellation. Whether Boston Blue can replicate that same sense of even-handedness with its expanded and more varied cast remains an open question, one that O'Reilly's pointed line of questioning was clearly designed to raise.
For now, Wade's position is one of measured support rather than active involvement. He is not attached to Boston Blue as a writer or producer, based on the available reporting, and his comments reflect the perspective of a creator watching his former show's universe expand under other hands. His refusal to frame that expansion in the culture-war terms O'Reilly proposed marks a notable moment in the ongoing public conversation about representation and casting choices in network television, particularly for a franchise as closely associated with a specific cultural identity as Blue Bloods had been.
Boston Blue's second season premiere on October 9 will offer the next real test of how audiences respond to the spinoff, following its first season's reception well enough to earn an early renewal from CBS last December.
