Today in “news that will surprise absolutely no one,” CBS has officially renewed Tracker for a second season.
The Justin Hartely missing persons drama has become the network’s biggest success story since it debuted after the Super Bowl last month.
Based on Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Never Game, the series, which CBS touts as the number-one show on television has now received the honor of being renewed just a few episodes into its freshman season.
“Tracker kicked off our premiere week with a ratings bang and has kept the momentum going,” said Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment.
“We knew we had something special when we saw the very first cut of the series and the overwhelming audience response confirms it” her statement continued.
“We couldn’t be more grateful to Justin, the talented cast, the incredible writing and producing teams and our partners at 20th Television for such compelling episodes.
“And, of course, we’re also so thankful to the millions of viewers tuning in each week.”
The show co-stars Robin Weigert, Abby McEnany, and Eric Graise in an outlaw twist on the police procedural, with Hartley playing a lone wolf survivalist who tracks down missing people for the reward money.
According to CBS, Tracker is “averaging nearly 16 million multiplatform viewers and is the most-watched new series since Young Sheldon in 2017/18 (16.49m viewers).
The show is also “the most-watched new drama since 2014/15’s Empire (17.33m viewers).”
So at this point, it comes as no surprise that Colter will be back for a second season.
But that outcome wasn’t always a sure thing.
In fact, early on, there were doubts about Hartley’s ability to carry an action series like Tracker.
The 47-year-old TV veteran was best known for his work as Kevin Pearson on This Is Us.
Needless to say, the soapy family drama — while also a massive hit — is not the sort of show that one expects to spawn TV’s next big action star.
Tracker is a passion project for Hartley, who also serves as executive producer, alongside Ken Olin, Elwood Reid and Ben Winters.
Now, the series has cleared a high hurdle by receiving a massive vote of confidence from CBS execs.
Hartley now has the second big hit of his career on his hands, and Tracker is well-positioned to become TV’s next long-running ratings juggernaut.
What do you think, TV fanatics? Does Tracker have what it takes to be CBS’ next big thing?
Hit the comments section below to share your thoughts!
Tyler Johnson is an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic and the other Mediavine O&O sites. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, and, of course, watching TV. You can Follow him on X and email him here at TV Fanatic.