Tracker ended its third season on Sunday with its place at the top of broadcast television still intact. The CBS drama was once again the No. 1 primetime scripted show in broadcast, and Justin Hartley said the next chapter will go further than anything the series has done so far.
“We’ll come back with something — we already have it, it’s pretty incredible. Honestly, I think it’s our most ambitious season to date, but I think it’s also our richest one, in terms of character and backstory and where we’re taking Colter,” Hartley said of Season 4. The actor plays Colter Shaw, a reward seeker who moves from place to place helping people across the country.
That confidence comes after a third season built around Colter’s family history. Over the first three years, the show unpacked what happened to Colter’s father and who was involved. Hartley said Colter originally believed his brother had something to do with it because his mother told him as much, and the season finale finally delivered the answers around that long-running thread.
Tracker now heads into Season 4 with a new production home as well as a new set of story lines. The series is moving from Vancouver to Los Angeles, a shift made possible by a $48 million California tax credit. Hartley said the relocation will not alter the show’s identity because Tracker is built as a road show, with Colter traveling from town to town across the United States and meeting people from all walks of life.
Instead, he said, the move opens the series up. Filming in Los Angeles will let the production play with more landscapes, including New York, D.C., the desert, Texas and the beach. Hartley said that range matters because the setting is not just a backdrop for the drama but one of its defining traits.
The series was produced in Vancouver for its first three years, and the change to Los Angeles marks one of the biggest behind-the-scenes shifts since it launched. Hartley said the move should not change the tone or character of the show, even as it gives the team more visual options for the road cases that drive each episode.
Hartley also pointed to a more personal change: his growing creative say as an executive producer. He said he has worked before with producers, executive producers and writers who let him weigh in on his character, but never on the overall shape of the show itself. On Tracker, he said, that has been one of the most rewarding parts of the job. He likes knowing he helped make something work — and, if it does not, that he can take the blame too.
For a series that just finished another run at the top of the ratings and closed one family mystery at the end of Season 3, the next step is already clear. Tracker is not resetting; it is widening the frame. Hartley says Season 4 will push Colter into new territory, and the move to Los Angeles is meant to give the show the room to do it.
