Boston Blue newbie Ernie Hudson isn’t the only one hoping Tom Selleck finds a way to appear on the Blue Bloods spinoff.
“That would be great,” Hudson, 79, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I’d love to work with Tom. I never have. Over the years, I’ve certainly admired his work. I admire his work and he’s still ready to do whatever.”
Hudson, who plays Reverend Peters on Boston Blue, said it would be “great to work” with Selleck. He also showed support for all of his costars after CBS expanded the Blue Bloods universe.
Blue Bloods found a strong fanbase when it premiered on CBS in 2010. After a 14-season run, viewers were not ready to say goodbye to New York Police Commissioner Frank Reagan (Selleck) and his children: Danny (Wahlberg), Erin (Bridget Moynahan) and Jamie (Will Estes).
After Blue Bloods came to an end in December 2024, Wahlberg scored a continuation with CBS’ Boston Blue. The show was ordered straight to series and has already featured a reunion with Moynahan and Marisa Ramirez.
Boston Blue also stars Marcus Scribner, Gloria Reuben, Maggie Lawson and Hudson. While speaking to Us, Hudson teased the role he would continue to play throughout the first season of Boston Blue.
“This is a guy who is — in my mind — just very committed to the community. He is certainly involved in his church community, even though his family has converted to Judaism, which is kind of interesting for him coming from generational traditions,” Hudson noted of his character. “But I think I like the idea of bringing that perspective into law enforcement.”
As Boston Blue continues, viewers will see more of the role that Reverend Peters plays.
“So much of the police work is coming out of the community. That’s the community that I serve and the community that I want to be properly represented,” Hudson shared. “There’s already a couple of situations where a member of my congregation is struggling with certain things and how do you intervene?”
Hudson continued: “He is involved but in a different way. And they’ve been able to bring that in but to not cross over into me trying to be the police. It is about me really wanting to serve the community and see that they receive justice in the right way. We got the letter of the law but then you also get the spirit of the law — and sometimes that gets overlooked.”
The actor, who also stars in and is an executive producer on BET’s The Family Business, was thrilled to join a project that is so rooted in family.
“What I did like in the episodes I saw of Blue Bloods is that it was really about the family. They played an important role in it and I’ve always been fascinated with that — just even in my own life,” Hudson said. “Not growing up with a large family or having parents, it’s always been something that I must say that I struggle with but also something that I’ve tried to make sense out of being a father and now a grandfather and a great grandfather.”
While Boston Blue has similarities to Blue Bloods, Hudson urged viewers to see the spinoff as its own entity, sharing, “That’s what I think humanity is. It’s that realization that we’re all pretty much in the same mix.”
He added, “We’re all tied together where sometimes it’s easy to look at people as being different and some people deserving of more and other people less and all that. We want to put people in categories but I think — what TV does very well — is we get a chance to look at these people and get inside of them. In doing so, we discover ourselves. If you can initiate any changes from that understanding, that to me is the magic of what makes it worthwhile.”
Blue Bloods is currently streaming on Paramount+. Boston Blue airs on CBS Fridays at 10 p.m. ET and The Family Business returns to BET on October 23.