All 3 'Blue's Clues' Hosts Get Candid About Their Real-Life Friendship: 'We Are Cut from the Same Cloth'

Blue’s Clues hosts Steve Burns, Donovan Patton and Joshua Dela Cruz tell PEOPLE about becoming fast friends, all thanks to the popular children’s series that brought them together

Steve Burns, Joshua Dela Cruz and Donovan Patton. Photo: Storm Santos

Steve Burns, Donovan Patton and Joshua Dela Cruz aren't just pals with their beloved pup Blue.

The three hosts of the long-running children's TV series Blue's Clues tell PEOPLE that they had a blast working together on the new film Blue's Big City Adventure, which brought the trio together as Blue and Josh venture to New York City to audition for a Broadway musical.

"We really are friends. We actually do see each other socially. And we would be friends even if we weren't on the show, I think, if we met," Burns, 49, the original host of Blue's Clues when the series premiered in 1996, tells PEOPLE.

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Burns and Patton, 44, have known each other for years. The two met when Patton took over as the show's second host, Joe, after his on-screen older brother Steve went off to college and the real-life Burns departed the show after six years.

The OG Blue's Clues host says he had "so much fun" reuniting with Patton to join Dela Cruz, 33, for the new film, which was released on Paramount+ last month.

"It was such a vacation," he says, joking, "The real truth is Donovan and I probably shouldn't be left unsupervised for two weeks in New York City."

When the two weren't needed on set, they would show up anyway to support Dela Cruz and watch as the musically gifted new Blue's Clues star would sing and dance his way through the Big Apple.

"To be quite honest, it's an easy day whenever Steve and Donovan are on set," Dela Cruz tells PEOPLE. "But in all honestly, there was so much FOMO [fear of missing out] that was happening when we were filming because up until the end of the movie we were not together."

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During their downtime, "We had all gone on dates," Dela Cruz says, to which Burns interjects: "We had so many romantic dates!"

He adds, "We really were out having fun. 'Oh, should we try the Lebanese restaurants?' We were having a blast."

Patton says he even had to stop himself from "geeking out" on set of Blue's Big City Adventure, which also featured appearances from Hamilton's Phillipa Soo, Tony Award winner Ali Stroker and actor and filmmaker Alex Winter, among others.

"I'm sandwiched in the middle of these two magnificent people in terms of my experience with the whole [franchise]. But the whole thing was pretty amazing," Patton says. "We're basically in a taxi cab with [Alex Winter] driving around doing our scenes. And I was like, 'Keep it together. Just be cool!'"

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Though Dela Cruz was the last to join the Blue's Clues family after being cast in the 2019 revival Blue's Clues & You!, he fit in with Burns and Patton from the start.

"Steve ambushed me at my audition," Dela Cruz reveals. "He emerged from the curtains, and I was like, 'Hey, Steve.' What I loved about that interaction was that as soon as he opened his mouth, I felt calm, I felt like I belonged there, and I felt taken seriously."

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"Then getting to know Steve and Donovan on a personal level beyond that was so freaking cool, because we are cut from the same cloth," he adds. "We're cousins on the show, and it's like a family reunion every time we get together, but the family that you love to see."