Donnie Wahlberg is setting expectations for where and why Boston Blue is rolling cameras. After fan chatter spiked over late July footage of Wahlberg and Mika Amonsen filming in Toronto, the Blue Bloods alum explained that the spinoff will split production between interiors in Canada and regular exterior work in Boston due to cost pressure across the TV business.

“I think we’ll be filming in Boston a lot,” Wahlberg said Thursday on Billy & Lisa in the Morning. “People think it’s a personal choice or that I didn’t want to film in Boston. I had the best time in my life filming in Boston. I have the best time in my life every time I go to Boston … The industry has really been beat up from COVID and the strike. CBS, for example, used to make, like, 20 shows a year. They’re making two this year — new shows — and I’m on one of them. It’s really dire straits financially in the industry, so I’m really fortunate to be making a show. I’m really fortunate to be able to go to Boston and work at all. But you know, when I initially was offered the job, I said, ‘We got to go to Boston.’ They said, ‘We can’t afford it.’”

Wahlberg put a fine point on the arithmetic. “It’s basically thirty cents on a dollar to film in Canada right now, compared to eighty cents on a dollar, ninety cents from a dollar even with tax breaks,” he continued. “But I said, ‘We have to go to Boston. I can’t not go to Boston.’ And so the plan right now is to do the interiors up here [in Toronto] and go to Boston every couple of weeks and do what we did and put a crew together, a Boston crew, and go down and film all over the city. You can’t fake what Boston looks like. And you know, we’re bringing Boston actors up here to guest [star] in the show. We’re doing everything we can, and hopefully, in success, we can be in Boston more. The goal is, let’s compromise to get the show made. We’ll work outside and do exteriors in Boston, and then you know, in success, perhaps we can come down there and be there full time. That would be a dream of all dreams.”

The series has already logged time at Fenway Park, where the diehard Red Sox fan played a scene as a New York Mets supporter — a boundary he says he insisted on with producers after refusing to let Danny Reagan be a Yankees fan. Bridget Moynahan is confirmed to appear, and Wahlberg is promising a premiere stacked with familiar faces. It is “going to blow people’s minds,” he teased. “I think people are going to be like, ‘Oh my god, Like there’s some twists and turns in the first episode, and then we’re going to continue that. We want to pay respect and honor Blue Bloods, but also there are thousands and thousands of police families in America, and we want to tell some of those stories, too. And we want to let Danny explore, you know, be a fish out of water.”

Wahlberg, a Boston native, emphasized that the hybrid plan is designed to keep the show viable while preserving the city’s look and feel on screen. “You can’t fake what Boston looks like,” he said, noting the production will shuttle in for recurring location blocks with a local crew and guest actors, with hopes to shift more work to Massachusetts if the series lands.