‘Blue Bloods’ Season 12 Might Feature Life-Altering Decision From Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan

New York City Police Commissioners come and go in real life, but Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan has held the job for 11 years on CBS’ Blue Bloods. As he nears the start of his 12th year though, Frank might be considering a life-altering decision. In a new TV Guide Magazine interview, Blue Bloods showrunner Kevin Wade teased Frank’s possible retirement.

The opening scenes of the Season 12 premiere show Frank as a “guy who’s seen it all, done it all and [questions] does he really want to anymore,” Wade said. In reality, “it was very clear this year that if you were a cop in New York, it must be incredibly frustrating because there is rampant street crime,” Wade continued. “For all the Reagans, [what] they signed up for – to protect and serve the public and carry out the law – feels out of reach.”

The season also features another dispute between Frank and New York City Mayor Peter Chase, played by Dylan Walsh. They have never seen eye-to-eye since Chase took office and that will continue. Chase’s main concern is making the city look safe for tourists after the pandemic. Wade compared Chase the mayor in Jaws, who repeatedly ignored warnings that a great white shark was in the water.

Meanwhile, Frank’s son Det. Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) meets medium Maggie (Callie Thorne) again in the season premiere. Danny is so frustrated by recently unsolved street shootings that he asks for Maggie’s help in finding a murderer. She is more interested in Danny’s single status, as he hasn’t dated anyone since his wife Linda (Amy Carlson) died before Season 9 in 2018. “She [asks], ‘When’s the last time you went out with a woman, not to seduce her but for companionship?’ And it strikes him-the clarity with which she sees him,” Wade told TV Guide. “Without spoiling the [scene’s] end, her words affect him. He wakes up a bit.”

Although Frank might be considering retirement, don’t expect Selleck to leave the show any time soon. In a new interview with Parade, Selleck said he loves doing the show and he knows the show’s cancellation would leave his colleagues without a job. “I want to stay with Blue Bloods,” Selleck told the magazine. “There’s a lot of careers involved, so everybody seems to want to stay with Blue Bloods and I’m just thrilled, put it that way. Everybody’s coming back.”

Selleck is also busy working on a memoir and another Jesse Stone movie. The one problem now is that he and Jesse Stone novelist Michael Brandman are considering moving the character from Hallmark to another outlet. “I’ve always felt Jesse suffers a little bit under the strains of some of the conventions of broadcast television. He’s a fairly dark individual,” Selleck told Parade. “They’re adult stories and I think we can make them more so with a little more, not license, but freedom. So I’m enthused, but I don’t have anything. I have agents and they’re talking.”