NEW YORK (AP) – Tom Selleck’s cop family drama “Blue Bloods” is hardly trendy TV, but last week was another illustration of its consistent value to CBS.
The Nielsen company said it was among the 10 most-watched programs. A week after CBS had the 10 most popular broadcast entrants on Nielsen’s weekly list – a first for any network since at least 2005 – CBS made it 11. Only AMC’s “The Walking Dead” interfered with the network’s dominance.
Selleck plays New York City police commissioner Frank Reagan in “Blue Bloods,” leading a family of law enforcers. The show’s average viewership in its sixth season is 13.1 million, down from a peak of 13.9 million in 2013-14. That’s considered a steady performance at a time people are watching less live television.
The success is also noteworthy since “Blue Bloods” airs on Fridays, a night that networks rarely air high-profile programming because they figure many people are out on the town. “Blue Bloods” is the most successful Friday night series since NBC’s “Law & Order” in 2002-03, Nielsen said.
Because it was doing well, CBS briefly experimented with “Blue Bloods” on the more lucrative Wednesday night schedule early in its run, said Kelly Kahl, the network’s chief scheduling executive. Since that made no appreciable difference in viewership, it was kept on Fridays.