The action drama Tracker has been a hit for CBS since its premiere in 2024. It stars Justin Hartley in the lead role as Colter Shaw, taught to be a survivalist by his father and now making his living as a “rewardist.” Traveling all over the U.S. in his airstream, Colter works with private citizens and law enforcement to locate missing people in exchange for reward money. Based on Jeffrey Deaver’s 2019 bestselling novel The Never Game and developed for TV by Ben H. Winters, Tracker has all the makings of a long-lasting network series. Its first season topped CBS ratings as the most-watched scripted series with an average of over eight million viewers per episode, and the second season kept the ball rolling with the most-watched premiere of the 2024-25 broadcast season. But should it be worried by accusations of plagiarism? While Colter Shaw is slightly reclusive and operates like a lone wolf, he certainly can’t do everything by himself. He has a unique group around him that helps with his searches from afar. In Season 1, married couple Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma (Abby McEany) handle the financial side of Colter’s business and provide him with cases to solve. Bobby (Eric Graise) is his tech guy who gathers any intel he can’t get out in the field.
When a new TV show drops, audiences quickly compare it to existing series. But sometimes, those comparisons go beyond just a casual resemblance. That’s exactly what’s happening with CBS’s ‘Tracker’, which fans claim bears an uncanny similarity to another show. So, did ‘Tracker’ actually rip off an existing series, or is this just another case of creative overlap? Let’s break it all down.
Reedie (Fiona Rene) is a lawyer (with whom Colter has a romantic history) who helps him out of any legal binds he finds himself in and occasionally bails him out of jail when his tracking tactics get him into trouble. However, there was a cast change between the first two seasons when Weigert opted not to continue with the show. The gap left more room for Reenie’s character to be developed, and her legal cases became more relevant in Season 2 and allowed for deepening relationships between the characters. While an interesting take on a typical procedural, a show centered on tracking people down is not a wholly original idea — though not much can be in episodic television. If the premise sounds familiar, it might be because it was done before with Fox’s 2012 show The Finder.
So, did ‘Tracker’ rip off ‘The Finder’? Maybe. Maybe not.
While the two shows share clear similarities, Hollywood often recycles ideas. Whether it’s inspiration, coincidence, or creative repackaging, the resemblance is impossible to ignore.
Either way, ‘Tracker’ is getting attention—whether for its originality or its déjà vu factor.
