Donnie Wahlberg talks up ‘Boston’s Finest’

Donnie Wahlberg on Friday was talking up “Boston’s Finest,” the reality TV show he’s producing for TNT about the Boston Police Department. Chatting with members of the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Wahlberg said he knows something about cops, having played one or two over the course of his acting career. “I’ve worked with cops for the last 15 years,” said Wahlberg, who currently plays a New York detective on the CBS series “Blue Bloods. “When I was on ‘Boomtown’ I worked with LA cops. On ‘Blue Bloods,’ I work with the New York cops. I know a lot about what their lives are like.” He said the eight-episode series, which premieres Feb. 27, will pay homage to the sort of people he grew up with in Dorchester, “quality human beings who do heroic things in a very dangerous environment.” The show, on which Wahlberg’s brother Bob serves as co-producer, follows members of the BPD’s gang unit, fugitive task force, and SWAT team, as well as patrol officers. It’s one of several projects Wahlberg is working on. Chatting with the Globe after Friday’s panel, he said he and brothers Mark and Paul are producing a reality show about Wahlburgers, the family’s restaurant in Hingham. “We’re probably going to shoot a pilot in January.” And then there’s the New Kids on the Block, Wahlberg’s not-so-new boy band with Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, and Jordan and Jonathan Knight. NKOTB will release their latest single by the end of the month — from a new CD that’s likely to drop in March — and a tour will be announced Jan. 22. Asked about a local date, Wahlberg said, “We’re going to try to play in and around Boston more than once.”