Tracker‘s success on CBS is a degree of delight for Justin Hartley, who went out of his option to credit score Taylor Swift for a few of that overwhelming viewership.
Through the Tuesday, Might 5, episode of Tommy DiDario‘s “I’ve By no means Mentioned This Earlier than” podcast, Hartley, 49, recalled how the Tremendous Bowl LVIII labored as a lead in for Tracker on CBS, saying, “You by no means know the way that’s going to go since you’re going to get an enormous quantity as a result of it’s the NFL and it’s the Tremendous Bowl.”
The actor, who performs Colter, identified the importance of the NFL sport.
“This specific one had Travis Kelce enjoying and Taylor Swift confirmed up on the sport,” Hartley recalled. “I used to be like, ‘If she exhibits as much as this sport …’ After which she confirmed as much as the sport and I used to be like, ‘It’s over, we’re all set. We’re going to get 900 billion views. That is going to be loopy as a result of they’re going to chop to her each couple of instances and the world’s going to go insane. That is nice.’”
He continued: “Then the sport went into additional time. And I used to be like, ‘No.’ Then it stored going and we premiered at like 11:30 PM however we did good.”
Based mostly on Jeffery Deaver‘s novel The By no means Sport, Tracker follows a survivalist named Colter who travels the nation serving to individuals and legislation enforcement sort out a wide range of mysteries. Because the sequence unfolds, viewers study extra about how Colter’s previous formed his present life as a lone wolf.
Hartley serves as each the lead and an govt producer on the present, which discovered its viewers as quickly because it premiered. After making its debut following the Tremendous Bowl in February 2024, Tracker earned the most-watched broadcast premiere in three years. The present that beforehand held that title was NCIS‘ remaining episode with Mark Harmon in September 2021.
The viewership solely elevated from there, with CBS revealing in December 2024 that Tracker averaged 18.2 million viewers per episode in keeping with their Paramount+ and broadcast measurements.
As Tracker continued to set TV data and lift viewership numbers, Hartley credited the storytelling for setting the present aside.
“One of many issues I actually love about Colter and the way in which we’ve constructed him is that he doesn’t apologize for his masculinity,” he advised Males’s Journal in August 2025. “I feel that’s what persons are searching for. You’re asking your self, ‘What sort of individuals do I wish to hang around with?’ And notably: ‘What sort of male associates do I’ve in my life that I actually worth?’”
Hartley was thrilled with the instance they can set with Colter.
“I feel we’ve crafted a personality that’s so emotionally developed, and he actually does wish to get to the foundation of why individuals do issues,” Hartley continued. “The information are that [executive producer] Ken Olin and I got down to do a present that was in actual fact a throwback. We wished a brand new spin on a procedural, which means our character would evolve over time.”
Hartley added: “He wouldn’t simply stay the identical precise individual each single week. We had been hopeful individuals would love it. Individuals ended up loving it. I feel there’s an enormous urge for food for this sort of present.”
Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.
