Blue Bloods Boss Refuses to Condemn Boston Blue as Bill O’Reilly Calls It Woke

“Blue Bloods” showrunner Kevin Wade did not take the bait from Bill O’Reilly when asked if he thought “Boston Blue” was a “woke” replacement for the cop procedural.

Wade served as the top dog on the CBS procedural from 2011 to 2024. The series was canceled in 2023, with CBS announcing that its 14th season would be its final one.

Shortly afterward, the spinoff “Boston Blue” debuted, featuring a much more diverse cast than the original series’ predominantly white ensemble.

“‘Boston Blue’ is woke. I mean, they got every ethnicity in the world coming in there. I don’t know who’s who,” O’Reilly complained. “Whereas ‘Blue Bloods’ was Irish Catholic traditional down the line.”

O’Reilly then pressed the showrunner asking if “the suits in Hollywood” canceled his series to produce a “woke version” that would make just as much moeny.

Wade told the host that he has only watched the pilot and a couple other episodes of the spinoff series, admitting he doesn’t watch much network television anymore. However, he praised the spinoff for providing jobs for actors and crew members alike.

“I think Donnie [Wahlberg] does a terrific job from what I’ve seen of it,” he said. “I’m going to be on the side of my colleagues here and go anytime something is providing jobs for actors and the huge amount of people that are employed as crew I’m happy for them, and I root for it.”

“Boston Blue” premiered in 2025, and it returns for its second season on CBS this October.

O’Reilly also asked if Wade faced any network pressure about “Blue Bloods,” leaning too far right with its demographic.

“I don’t think there was a political agenda because although ‘Blue Bloods’ I think was perceived as a maybe a right-leaning show,” Wade said. “It was certainly about a a family of white Roman Catholic Brooklyn cops, and cops and law enforcement in general tend to lean to the right.”

The showrunner added that if the series did cover political topics they tried to make sure that they brought in perspectives from both sides of the issue.

“If there was a reason for its success,” Wade says, “It was that people didn’t feel preached to. They didn’t feel like we were telling them what to think or how to think or or what side was the right side.”

You can watch Wade’s full interview in the video above.