Boston Blue

Main

• Donnie Wahlberg as NYPD detective Danny Reagan
• Sonequa Martin-Green as Boston police detective Lena Silver, daughter of Mae and stepdaughter of Ben. Her biological father is absent at the start of the series, and she chooses to complete her conversion to Judaism in honor of her stepfather in Season 1.
• Ernie Hudson as Reverend Edwin Peters, a Baptist pastor and Lena's grandfather
• Maggie Lawson as Sarah Silver, biological daughter of Ben and Lena's stepsister who serves as Boston PD's Superintendent of Detectives.
• Gloria Reuben as Mae Silver, the Boston District Attorney (officially the District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts), Lena's mother, and Sarah's stepmother, who converted to Judaism with her marriage to the late Ben Silver, a judge who was killed in front of a courthouse about a year before the series starts.
• Marcus Scribner as Jonah Silver, Sarah and Lena's younger half-brother and biological son of Mae and Ben, a Boston patrol officer who is partners with Sean Reagan.
• Mika Amonsen as Sean Reagan, Danny's younger son, and now a Boston patrol officer; due to the NYPD temporarily pausing hiring new police offers. Sean moves to Boston to become the fourth generation of Reagans to become a police officer. Amonsen takes over the role from Andrew Terraciano, who played the character on all seasons of Blue Bloods.

Recurring

• Kenric Green as Charlie, Mae's chief of staff
• Xochitl Gomez as Penny
• Mike Vogel as Seth Yates, Sarah's boyfriend
• Matia Jackett as Phoebe, Seth's daughter
• Ryan Broussard as Detective Brian Rogers, Lena's old partner and new boyfriend
• Harry Lennix as Judge Elijah Robinson, Mae's love interest

Guest

• Xochitl Gomez as Penny, Sean's girlfriend
• Holly Robinson as Jill Evans, Mae's sister

Crossover characters from Blue Bloods

• Bridget Moynahan as Erin Reagan, Danny's younger sister and a New York County Assistant District Attorney. (guest)
• Marisa Ramirez as Det. Maria Baez, Danny's old partner and new girlfriend. (recurring) Wahlberg announced in February 2026 that she would also be in Season 2, with the producers suggesting she could have a more regular role.
• Len Cariou as Henry Reagan, Danny's grandfather
• Will Estes as Jamie Reagan, Danny's brother

Season 1 (2025)

Season 2 (2026)

Development

On June 4, 2024, Paramount Global co-CEO Brian Robbins told company shareholders that there were plans for a "franchise extension" of Blue Bloods.

The show was not planned as a Blue Bloods spinoff. Writers Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis had originally proposed a separate drama named after the Boston neighborhood Jamaica Plain about the transfer of an LAPD detective to Boston. In February 2025, CBS officially picked up the series right away for a full season for the 2025–2026 broadcast season.

The director and producer of the first episode is Anthony Hemingway.

On December 3, 2025, CBS renewed the series for a second season.

Casting

In addition to Wahlberg, CBS also announced the casting of Sonequa Martin-Green as a second main character in May 2025. Her new character Lena Silver originally had the name Lena Peters in casting reports, which would be the birth name of her mother's character. In May 2025, Ernie Hudson joined the cast as a series regular. Hudson had before appeared on Blue Bloods playing another character in a guest role in 2018 in Season 8. In June 2025, Maggie Lawson, Gloria Reuben, and Marcus Scribner also joined the cast in starring roles. Reuben had also appeared on Blue Bloods in a guest role as a different character in Season 11. In July 2025, Mika Amonsen joined the cast as a series regular character as Danny Reagan's younger son Sean, taking over the role played by Andrew Terraciano on the original show. In the same month, Bridget Moynahan joined the cast to again play her role as Erin as a special guest star and to later direct an episode as well. In November 2025, it was reported that Xochitl Gomez would appear in a recurring role.

In response to a question about appearing in a possible spin-off, Tom Selleck had said he was "open to suggestions because I love Frank Reagan," but added that he did not see the character retiring and going off to a small town.

Filming

Most of the filming is taking place in Toronto due to financial reasons because of broader difficulties in the U.S. filming industry. Wahlberg said he pushed to do at least some filming in Boston in the first season, which took place in August 2025 at Fenway Park and Boston Common. "The goal is, let’s compromise to get the show made. We’ll work outside and do exteriors in Boston, and then you know, in success, perhaps we can come down there and be there full time," he told a Boston radio station.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 80% based on 10 critic reviews. Metacritic gave the series an average score of 64 out of 100 based on 9 critics, which means "generally favorable".

Aramide Tinubu of Variety wrote in her review: "Boston Blue has enormous shoes to fill, considering the 14-year run of Blue Bloods. Yet, in the episodes screened (critics received two for review), it is clear that this new show has the foundation to go all the way." Diedre Johnson of TheWrap wrote in her review: "Despite a new cast and setting, CBS’s Boston Blue has all the bones of the original series." Joel Keller of Decider wrote in his review: Boston Blue was eye-rollingly frustrating to watch, because it feels like showrunner Brandon Margolis and his writing staff took every contrived, cliched way to create a spinoff of a hit series they could dream up, making for a story that feels like it came straight from a spinoff episode you might have seen in the 1980s." Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly wrote in her review: "Sometimes, the best thing a show can do is deliver exactly what the viewers want — nothing more, nothing less. And that’s just what CBS does with Boston Blue, the new spinoff of its long-running, much-loved drama, Blue Bloods."

Ratings