May 1, 2021
Blue Bloods (BB) is a drama program on CBS that is in its 11th season and has been contracted to run for at least a 12th year. It is also doing very well in syndication. The star of BB is Tom Selleck, who plays New York City police commissioner Frank Reagan. The show centers on a family of New York City cops. But it is much more than just a multi-generational Irish family of cops saga. The BB faithful audience feels as if every BB show does not challenge their own beliefs, does not mock their values, and actually encourages and supports the values and morals of the viewership. Blue Bloods is not the typical TV show that tells the conservative viewers that his/her feelings, thoughts, and beliefs are all wrong; but actually validates and sustains how the viewers feel. Sometimes. That is why BB has such a faithful and loyal audience for the past 11 years. .
The Irish cop family on BB has the surname “Reagan.” I’m sure choosing the name Reagan was purposeful, and I think the former president, the Gipper, would be honored by the show using his family name. The Reagan family is pro-cop, pro-Catholic faith, pro-military, pro-nuclear family, and pro-God. It is also pro-America. The Reagan family is everything the “woke” mob of today hates. And one is quite surprised in today’s cancel culture that the liberal Hollywood McCarthyites would allow such a populist supporting TV show to continue to run. BB would seem more in place in the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, as opposed to the cancel culture of today. If they can cancel Dr. Seuss, Robert E. Lee, and Lincoln statues you would think they would be able to cancel Commissioner Frank Reagan and his BB family. But BB remains on Friday nights at 10:00. And the BB faithful love it. Unlike newer drama shows such as FBI, there is not always a white supremacist running around to make us feel guilty about ourselves.
Blue Bloods does not shy away from the heavy issues of today. It frankly and openly discusses police brutality, gang violence, predator priests, child trafficking, terrorism, immigration (both legal and illegal), Mexican cartels, police corruption, political influence, child porn, drug abuse, racism, race baiting, using the race card, and homelessness… just to name a few. At the Reagan’s weekly Sunday family dinner, many of these issues receive an open and honest airing. If it is an issue of today and it matters; BB covers it. What makes the BB faithful so faithful, is that the conservatives aren’t always the bad guys. The constitutionalists aren’t always crazed cultists. The Christians aren’t always hypocrites and villains. In fact, the conservatives, constitutionalists, and Christians are usually right, and the progressive anarchists and revolutionaries are usually wrong. But not always… As it appears today that Antifa, BLM, and Socialists try to cancel all things patriotic and historic to our nation’s founding; BB writers stand sturdy, strong, and fair. And so do the ratings and viewership of BB. As the NFL is losing viewership, as LeBron’s NBA ratings are caving in, as the Major League Baseball is in free fall since moving the All-Star game, and as the Oscars has just lost 58% of the viewership in just one year; the Reagan family of BB is still the icon of traditional American patriotic values. Not a perfect family at all, but a very good one.
Blue Bloods is not Leave It To Beaver, Andy Griffith, nor Happy Days. But it is also not Rosanne, Ellen, nor Two Broke Girls. To be sure, when you watch BB you don’t feel that you are looking at a Normal Rockwell painting. BB is fair and balanced and shows both sides in the controversial topics of today. The Reagan’s Sunday family dinner is key in showing this. It allows both sides and both viewpoints to be heard and understood.
In the show there are characters that resemble very much real life public figures like Reverend Al Sharpton, congresswomen Maxine Waters, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Governor Andrew Cuomo. These characters always get to speak their point of view and are never silent. But what makes BB viewers keep coming back is that these characters are not always right. These Left-leaning characters are not saints. These real-life characters are not speaking the gospel that we are told to kneel to. This is what keeps the BB faithful so faithful. The Blue Bloods’ audience isn’t always told how old-fashioned, stupid, and racist they are. BB does not belittle their own fan bases’ politics, standards, and norms.
How long Blue Bloods continues to run will probably be determined by how long Tom Selleck wants to be Commissioner Frank Reagan. But it will also be determined by if the producers and writers of BB continue to be fair and balanced and even-handed in their scripts. Since the show began 11 years ago, it has almost always been in the Top 20 shows watched. And in three of the last four years, it has been in the Top 10 shows viewed. It is not a coincidence that as BLM, Antifa, and the revolutionary mobs try to cancel our history and try to make us feel guilty for putting America First that a TV show that consistently endorses and promotes conservative values and conservative culture remains popular. As long as BB remains fair and balanced as it comes to issues of policing, our military, our faith in God, our history, and believing that although America is not a perfect nation; we still are the best country on earth, BB will continue to have a loyal and considerably high fan base. Here’s praying the “woke” cancel culture mob does not get its clutches into Blue Bloods. That would be a big disappointment to the Gipper and about half of America.
