The celebrated actor spoke with ET about his new memoir and the future of his hit CBS police drama.
While it was announced that Blue Bloods’ 14th season would be its last, star Tom Selleck says he’s hoping the show might have more time to tell its stories.
The actor sat down with ET’s Rachel Smith on Tuesday, while promoting his new memoir, You Never Know, and he opened up about why he feels Blue Bloods is “a 15-season show.”
“It’s real simple — the way everything came down, we were gonna do an 18-show 14th season. Then, with the strike, we did a 10-show season, just like everybody else,” shared Selleck, who stars as Commissioner Frank Reagan on the CBS cop drama.
“But then we kept shooting, and we’re shooting right now,” Selleck, 79, said, explaining that the 14th season got split into two parts, with the second half of season 14 not airing until the fall.
“I’m not just gonna sit around doing a countdown to [the new episodes]. I’m gonna stay optimistic, because everybody on the show wants to do it,” Selleck said. “I’m just staying optimistic.”
When Selleck’s iconic TV show Magnum P.I. came to an end in 1988, the finale drew in a huge audience and the series “went out as a huge success,” as Selleck explained. He wants Blue Bloods to get a similar opportunity to go out on top.
“Blue Bloods, right now, is rather wildly successful,” Selleck said. “I’m talking about that not to brag, but [to say that] the people on our show — if and when it ends — deserve this kind of five-star entry on their resume.”
“The reason I talk about it this much is really so the public doesn’t think we’re just kind of winding down and the show is tired,” Selleck said. “We’re as good as ever — and very successful.”
While fans wait for new episodes of Blue Bloods to air in October, Selleck has penned a memoir about his life in showbusiness and his journey to success.
“I tried to be honest, not hype anything up,” Selleck said of his new book. “I wasn’t gonna do a book about who I dated or getting even or politics — it’s about the work… [and my] very long, kinda accidental career.”
As Selleck explained, he never thought he’d be an actor when he was younger, and through college thought he’d be an athlete.
“I had fantasies about being a professional baseball player, but never about acting. And I never did a play, never studied or anything,” Selleck shared. “I think I was just very fortunate to grow up in the city where the business is.”
Selleck’s memoir, You Never Know, is available now.