Boston Blue is an Americanpolice procedural drama television series that premiered its first season onCBS on October 17, 2025, which is set to consist of 20 episodes.[3] Executive produced by and starringDonnie Wahlberg, the series is a spin-off ofBlue Bloods focusing on his characterDanny Reagan taking a position with theBoston Police Department.
FormerNYPD detectiveDanny Reagan takes a position with theBoston Police Department after a case involving his younger son Sean occurs. He is partnered with Lena Silver, the eldest daughter of a noted police family in that city and a "rising star".
She is the granddaughter of Reverend Peters, described as the renowned pastor of a historic Baptist church in Boston. He is the father of Mae Silver, Boston's District Attorney, and also the grandfather of Superintendent Sarah Silver and rookie patrol cop Jonah Silver.[4][5]
Ernie Hudson as Reverend Edwin Peters, a Baptist pastor and Lena's grandfather[4]
Maggie Lawson as Sarah Silver, Lena's stepsister[7] who serves as Boston PD's Superintendent of Detectives.
Gloria Reuben as Mae Silver, the Boston District Attorney (officially theDistrict Attorney ofSuffolk 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, Lena's younger brother and Mae's son, a Boston patrol officer partnered with Sean Reagan.
Mika Amonsen asSean Reagan, Danny's younger son, and a Boston patrol officer;[1] due to an NYPD hiring freeze, Sean moved to Boston, to become the fifth generation of Reagans to become a police officer.
NYPD detective Danny Reagan finds out his son, Boston PD patrol officer Sean Reagan, has been seriously injured in a building fire, interrupting a night he is spending with his girlfriend, his former NYPD partner Maria Baez. He rushes to Boston and teams up with Detective Lena Silver to investigate the fire, apparently set to cover up the murder of a facial-recognition tech company CEO. As Sean recovers, Danny's sister Erin Reagan also visits to check on them and they both attend a Shabbat dinner with Lena Silver's family which includes Jonah Silver, Sean's friend at the police academy.
On June 4, 2024, Paramount Global co-CEOBrian Robbins said at a shareholder presentation that there were plans for a "franchise extension" ofBlue Bloods.[24]
The show was not planned as aBlue Bloods spinoff, but had originally been pitched by writers Brandon Sonnier[25] and Brandon Margolis[26] as a drama titled after the Boston neighborhoodJamaica Plain focused on a transfer from the LAPD to Boston. In February 2025, CBS officially picked up the show straight-to-series for the2025–2026 broadcast season.[27]
In addition to Wahlberg, CBS also announced the casting ofSonequa Martin-Green as a second lead character in May 2025; the new character Lena Silver was originally referred to in announcements as Lena Peters, which would be the maiden name of her mother's character.[29] In May 2025,Ernie Hudson was cast as a series regular for the series.[4] Hudson had previously appeared onBlue Bloods playing another character in a guest role in 2018 in Season 8.[30] In June 2025,Maggie Lawson,Gloria Reuben, andMarcus Scribner joined the cast in starring roles.[31][32][5] In July 2025, Mika Amonsen was cast as a series regular as Danny Reagan's younger son Sean, a recasting of the role played by Andrew Terraciano on the original show.[33] In the same month,Bridget Moynahan joined the cast to reprise her role as Erin as a special guest star and set to direct an episode as well.[34] In November 2025, it was reported thatXochitl Gomez was cast in a recurring capacitiy.[35]
Asked about participation in a possible spin-off,Tom Selleck 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.[36]
Most of the filming is taking place inToronto due to financial reasons amid broader challenges in the U.S. filming industry. Wahlberg said he advocated to do at least some filming in Boston, which took place in August 2025 atFenway Park andBoston Common.[37][38] "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.
Boston Blue had its world premiere atMIPCOM Cannes on October 12, 2025.[39] The series premiered on CBS on October 17, 2025; it has inherited the Friday 10:00 p.m. ET/PT time slot thatBlue Bloods aired in for the majority of its run.[40][41]
On the review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 80% based on 10 critic reviews.[42]Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable".[43]
Aramide Tinubu ofVariety wrote in her review: "Boston Blue has enormous shoes to fill, considering the 14-year run ofBlue 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."[44] Diedre Johnson ofTheWrap wrote in her review: "Despite a new cast and setting, CBS’sBoston Blue has all the bones of the original series."[45] Joel Keller ofDecider 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."[46] Kristen Baldwin ofEntertainment 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 withBoston Blue, the new spinoff of its long-running, much-loved drama,Blue Bloods."[47]
^Pickard, Michael (October 9, 2025)."Painting Boston Blue".Drama Quarterly. C21Media. Archived fromthe original on October 9, 2025. RetrievedOctober 20, 2025.
