For 14 years, fans enjoyed watching the beloved Reagan family solve tough cases and enjoy their weekly Sunday night dinners. Over the years, the faces around the dinner table and in the squad cars have changed for various reasons, with new characters appearing and a few main characters leaving before fans were ready to say goodbye.
Find out why your favorite Blue Bloods characters, portrayed by actresses such as Jennifer Esposito and Sami Gayle, left the series unexpectedly.
Jennifer Esposito
Craig Blankenhorn / © CBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection
One of the earlier character departures was Jennifer Esposito’s Detective Jackie Curatola, partner to Detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg). Jackie had an extremely abrupt exit, starring on the show until the 7th episode of Season 3. The on-screen explanation for the character’s departure was that she took a leave of absence from the NYPD to deal with burnout and stress.
In real life, Esposito was dealing with a diagnosis of celiac disease, which led to an on-set collapse because of the demands of the production schedule. CBS announced that the actress was only available part-time, leading to her departure, but Esposito shared on Twitter that that wasn’t the case. She said her doctor requested she be put on a reduced schedule, to which CBS allegedly declined and instead put her on unpaid leave, not allowing her to work anywhere else. The character was then written out of the series, though she did later appear as a guest star in the final seasons of the show.
Amy Carlson
Craig Blankenhorn/©CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
Amy Carlson, who portrayed Danny’s wife Linda Reagan, left the show unexpectedly after its 7th season, leaving fans stunned. Her on-screen exit was an abrupt one, having been explained in the season 8 premiere with no final appearance by Carlson.
In the series, it was said that Linda had died in a helicopter crash—which later turned out not to have been an accident—after surviving a house fire in the season 7 finale. The character’s death was not shown on-screen; rather, it was done off-camera between the 7th and 8th seasons. Fans were upset by the way it was portrayed in the show, with no closure for the character.
Executive producer Kevin Wade explained this decision, saying, “If we opened with a funeral, it would feel so immediate and the characters would be mourning for at least one-third of the season. That’s what drove the decision to use Linda’s death as a touchstone, but not having it drive the tone of the series.”
In real life, Carlson decided not to continue on the series after her seven-year contract ended. Instead, she moved on to pursue other projects, which surprised Wade and co-stars like Wahlberg, who expected Carlson to stay on the show.
Sami Gayle
Jojo Whilden / ©CBS / courtesy Everett Collection
Nicky Reagan, daughter of Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan), was a main character in Blue Bloods for 10 years before the actress decided to leave. Her timing coincided with the character growing up and moving out, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when she left. On-screen, Nicky accepted a job in San Francisco after graduating from Columbia University, making it hard for the character to be in New York too often.
Off-screen, it seems the reason for her exit was similar, as Gayle was attending Columbia as well, and the schedule conflicted with her appearances. Gayle left the series midway through the 10th season, returning one time each in seasons 11, 13 and 14.
Flex Alexander
Craig Blankenhorn / © CBS / Courtesy: Everett Collection
You may not remember this exit, but Flex Alexander, who portrayed Detective Demarcus King and partner to Danny, left after only one episode. Alexander, who appeared in the pilot episode, was originally slated to star alongside Wahlberg as his
The Reagan family loses a piece: Viewers bid a sorrowful farewell to the ‘Blue Bloods’ actor
Donnie Wahlberg is explaining why Boston Blue isn’t always filmed in Beantown.
During a Thursday, April 23 appearance on Andy Cohen Live, the Blue Bloods alum revealed that he offered to sacrifice half his paycheck just to film the CBS spinoff in Boston, but the network said it wasn’t possible.
While parts of the procedural are indeed filmed in Wahlberg’s hometown, it’s largely filmed in Toronto. And for good reason, he added.
“I got offered the job, I’m like, ‘This is a dream come true,’” Wahlberg, who reprises his role of Danny Reagan in Boston Blue, said. “I thought, I’ll do a spinoff in L.A. or Vegas or Texas, somewhere hot. And they were like, ‘How about Boston?’ I was like, ‘Ahhhh.’ They hooked me.”
He added, “They were like, ‘But we can’t afford to shoot it in Boston, we’re gonna shoot it in Toronto.’ I was like, ‘No, no.’ I said, ‘Listen, I’ll give back 50% of my paycheck if we can go to Boston.’ I did. And they said, ‘You can give back 100% and so can the rest of the cast, we cannot film this show in Boston.’”
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Ultimately, it’s “so expensive” to set up production in Beantown, meaning Wahlberg and his costars primarily film in Canada. There was another factor at play, too, he shared.
“Honestly, Andy, we can’t film it in Boston full time because it’s nonstop,” he said of the fan reaction. “Literally, the duck boats are going by, and the tour guides have on these headsets with speakers. And it’s literally in the background of a scene you hear, ‘Oh my God, there’s Donnie Wahlberg right over there on the corner…’”
“And then I gotta run over to the duck boat and pose for pictures with everyone,” he said. “My cousins, my uncles, my aunts, my nieces, my nephews… Everybody’s there. We wouldn’t get any work done.
The real-life Bostonian also opened up about the baggage that comes with filming in his hometown during a Wednesday, April 22 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. During the interview, Wahlberg explained why “it’s crazy” when he films in Boston. “We don’t get anything shot. Every take, I’m literally saying, ‘Give me your hand, sir, you’re under arrest,’ and it’s like, ‘Donnie! Donnie.’”
“The duck boat tours, which are very famous in Boston, they drive by and have a headset on with a speaker,” he added. “And it’s literally like, ‘Over there, you’ll see Donnie Wahlberg in the wild. He grew up three doors down from me, I knew his mother, God rest her soul.’”
From 2010 to 2024, Wahlberg played Danny Reagan on 14 seasons of Blue Bloods, which was based in New York City. In the spinoff, his character joins the Boston Police Department in an effort to be closer to his son (a fellow cop). The show also stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Detective Lena Silver, Maggie Lawson as Sarah Silver, and Ernie Hudson as Reverend Edwin Peters, among others.
Wahlberg previously caught up with PEOPLE at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in March, when he described having “the pleasure of calling all my castmates and telling them” the show had been renewed for a second season. Boston Blue premiered on CBS in October. “I did it, and every cast member got tears in their eyes, every single one of them, and so did I,” he said. “And when I called Jenny [McCarthy] and told her about that, we shared a nice cry.”
“Well, I’m an EP too, so I said as one of the EPs, I’d like to be the one to tell them. And everyone agreed,” Wahlberg added.
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