Tom Selleck’s Biggest Blue Bloods Controversy: Original Cast Member Accuses CBS of Firing Her to Keep an All-White Cast Like CSI

Blue Bloods wrapped a 14-season run in 2024 with Tom Selleck still holding the line as NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan, and yes, those Reagan family dinners remained the show’s secret weapon on Friday nights. But behind the scenes, one cast shakeup left a long shadow: Jennifer Esposito’s messy exit in Season 3 and everything that spun out from it.

What actually happened with Jennifer Esposito

Early in Season 3 back in 2012, Esposito — who played Detective Jackie Curatola and had done stints on Law & Order — collapsed on set after an allergic reaction. She has Celiac disease and went on medical leave. That’s where the fight started.

Esposito said she needed a reduced schedule for health reasons. She also said the network didn’t believe how sick she was, suggesting they thought she was angling for a raise. CBS countered that she could only work part-time and the show needed a full-time series regular, so they moved on.

"CBS...PUT me on unpaid leave and has blocked me from working anywhere else after my doc said you needed a reduced schedule due to celiac."

She was written out with an in-story explanation that Jackie was burned out and stepping away from the job. She was not happy about any of it, calling the situation "an injustice in this business."

When producers brought in a new detective to partner with Danny, the internet did what the internet does. For clarity: it was Megan Ketch who joined Blue Bloods at that point, not Megan Boone. (People still mix up the Megans.) Esposito fired off a tweet reacting to the casting and the optics of the ensemble:

"There it is. CBS got rid of the only minority cast member so they can have an ALL WHITE CAST like CSI."

That line set off a wider debate over what she meant by "minority," how Hollywood labels people, and who gets counted as what. Esposito is Italian American, and her wording sparked plenty of arguments she probably didn’t intend to referee.

Time smoothed some edges. Esposito eventually returned to Blue Bloods as a guest star in the home stretch of the series, a small but notable reconciliation after the blowup.

Did it change the show?

Not really. The core cast stayed put, the family dinners kept doing their thing, and Blue Bloods just kept cruising on Fridays. If you’re keeping score, here are the basics:

• Show: Blue Bloods (CBS)
• Genre: Police procedural drama about the Reagan family in the NYPD
• Creators: Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess
• Run: Sept 24, 2010 – Dec 13, 2024
• Seasons/Episodes: 14 seasons, 293 episodes
• Main cast: Tom Selleck (Frank Reagan, Commissioner), Donnie Wahlberg (Danny Reagan, Detective), Bridget Moynahan (Erin Reagan, ADA), Will Estes (Jamie Reagan, Officer), Len Cariou (Henry Reagan, retired Police Commissioner)
• IMDb: 7.7/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 81%

Meanwhile, over in CSI land

When CBS revived the franchise with CSI: Vegas, the show took heat in some corners of the internet for being "woke" or "politically correct" — a lot of that chatter centered on Paula Newsome’s character, Maxine Roby, who became the first Black woman lead in the CSI universe. That online noise aside, the real story was the numbers. CSI: Vegas was canceled after three seasons, with ratings among the softest on CBS in the 2023–24 window and network budgets tightening across the board. Causation and correlation are not the same thing, but the end result is the same: Blue Bloods rode out 14 seasons; CSI: Vegas didn’t.

Where to watch

Blue Bloods is streaming on Paramount+ and Hulu in the U.S. CSI and its spinoffs, including CSI: Vegas, are on Paramount+ in the U.S.