The Surprising Way Blue Bloods Season 11 Will Handle The Pandemic

Faced with factoring COVID-19 into their show, the Blue Bloods creators ultimately decided to skip it, setting season 11 (which premieres on December 4) about six months after the pandemic has ended (must be nice.)

In late November, Will Estes, who plays Jamie Reagan, the youngest of Frank Reagan's (Tom Selleck) sons, told Pop Culture that he only learned that the show wouldn't portray the world going through the pandemic at the last moment. "Initially I thought, 'Wow, are we going to do service to what's going on with current events, is that going to be a loss?'" he admitted. But he added, "I think it might be really nice for our audience to see the show without the pandemic ... people will get to ... step away from some of the difficult things that are going on in our everyday lives right now. And I think that might be the best way that we can serve our audience."

A few months earlier, Selleck had hinted that he personally didn't feel that the audience needed to see another show set during the worst of the pandemic. He told Parade in May, "I think there's a tremendous desire, in a realistic way, to dramatically escape from all that ... There's plenty of police work to do besides the coronavirus."

However, Blue Bloods season 11 will feel different in one aspect, as the show attempts to address another major news story from 2020: police brutality. Donnie Wahlberg told TV Insider, "We've always tried to engage in tough conversations with multiple opinions ... But certainly, we are aware that everybody in this country has to take a closer look at themselves right now and of course Blue Bloods has to do that as well."