Tom Selleck on ‘Blue Bloods’ ending: CBS should know ‘an awful lot of people aren’t ready to say goodbye’

Tom Selleck isn’t ready to say goodbye to his hit CBS series “Blue Bloods” — and neither are its fans.

“CBS will find an awful lot of people aren’t ready to say goodbye to it,” Selleck told TVLine. “The show’s more popular than ever, and I think [viewership] will increase with the interest this year.

“We’re certainly not out of ideas.”

CBS announced in November that it was ending the show’s 14-season run. The series is shot on location in New York City.

Feb. 16 will kick off the run of the remaining episodes, with 10 airing through the end of this season and the last eight episodes airing this fall, according to Deadline.

Selleck stars in the series as New York Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, the patriarch of a closely knit family fighting crime as part of the NYPD and the district attorney’s office.

It has been a Friday night staple on CBS since premiering in 2010. It is the night’s top-rated series, averaging over 9.5 million viewers per week last season.

The cast also includes Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Danny Reagan, Will Estes as Jamie Reagan, Bridget Moynahan as ADA Erin Reagan and Len Cariou as retired NYPD Commissioner Henry Reagan.

“For the past 13 years it has been an honor and a privilege to work on a show that not only celebrates the men and women who protect and serve New York City, but also displayed the importance of family,” Selleck said in a statement when CBS announced the show was ending.

Selleck told TVLine that he’s not ready to retire just yet.

“I’m not counting the days so I can do something else,” said Selleck, who turned 79 on Monday. “I love the work. Sometimes the hours are a little harder because I’m older, but so what? I want to work as long as they’ll have me.”

He was noncommittal when asked if Frank Reagan is ready for retirement.

“He picks fights because he’d like somebody to take the weight of this responsibility [off] his hands and fire him,” Selleck told TVLine. “But he has a hyperactive sense of responsibility and he’s stuck with it.”

He said that “playing a flawed but strong father” makes him most proud of his series’ achievements.

“On television and commercials, Dad is usually the idiot,” he said. “It’s not my mission on the show, but the byproduct is an example of an important patriarch to the family. That’s getting rarer in our culture.”

Selleck then looped back to one of the show’s trademarks: the Reagan family’s weekly dinner scene.

“It’s the audience’s favorite part,” he said. “When I saw the eight-page dinner scene in [executive producer] Leonard Goldberg’s pilot script, I said, ‘They’re going to cut that, aren’t they?’”

He added: “And he answered, ‘No, that will be a centerpiece of the show.’ He was right.”