CBS Not Airing ‘Blue Bloods’ Due to NCAA Basketball

CBS is skipping Blue Bloods once again because of the NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness tournament. The next new episode of the series will not air until Friday, March 30.

The episode is titled “Close Calls,” and sees Jamie Regan (Will Estes) and his partner, Eddie (Vanessa Ray) helping Officer Tariq (Rene Ifrah) get a new assignment after he worked undercover at a mosque. Danny’s brother-in-law Jimmy (Kevin Dillon) also needs Danny’s help after he gets involved with mobsters. Frank also wants Erin to have Anthony investigate his old partner, Lenny (Treat Williams).

The April 6 episode, “Friendship, Love, and Loyalty,” is poised to be a major turning point for the show. The episode description includes an ominous sentence: “Eddie is shot while on duty.” Does that really mean that Eddie is leaving the series though? If she did, she would be the second major female cast member to leave, following Danny’s wife Linda (Amy Carlson).

The main case in the episode will be a cold case that resurfaces after the mother of the victim complains to the NYPD about her son’s killer never being found. Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and his partner, Det. Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) investigate the murder, which makes the original detective on the case angry. Erin (Bridget Moynahan) and Anthony (Steven Schirripa) are also not too happy about this, since their office shut the case down because of lack of evidence.

Erin also has to face her ex-husband, Jack (Peter Hermann), in court on opposite sides. It is his first appearance on the show since Sept. 29, 2017 episode “Cutting Losses.”

The show will also include a plot with Frank (Tom Selleck), who needs to defend his department after Mayor Dutton (Lorraine Bracco) decides against defending the police in a press conference. Dutton recently took office and has clashed with Frank’s more conservative view of policing. Bracco, an Emmy-nominated actress for her role in The Sopranos, has not been seen since the Nov. 17, 2017 episode “Pick Your Poison.”

Thankfully there will not be a break after the April 6 episode. The next one, “Risk Management,” will air on Friday, April 13 and finds a very special guest star in New York City Mayor David Dinkins, while Danny and Baez’s case is about a missing girl who could die without her heart medication.

The eighth season finale of Blue Bloods airs on Friday, May 11 at 10 p.m. ET.

New episodes of Blue Bloods air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: CBS