Justin Hartley Teases What’s in Store for ‘Tracker’ Season 2 and Beyond
Waking up at 5 a.m. may seem early to many of us, but that’s how Justin Hartley typically starts his day. But, come on, would you expect anything less from the guy who starred in and served as an executive producer on Tracker, last season’s biggest series? “You wake up in the dark and then you work all day and then you open your eyes and suddenly it’s dark again,” Hartley laughs from Vancouver, Canada, where he’s on day three of an eight-day shoot for the fourth episode of season two. “It’s a lovely life,” he adds matter-of-factly.
Today is what the Illinois native calls a “light day,” which doesn’t seem like it, considering he’s got meetings, a read through the Tracker script (and others he might want to develop), a workout, a meal, a catch-up with his 20-year-old daughter Isabella, and some time with his wife, Sofia Pernas. Plus, he’s taking a break from all that to talk to this reporter about the second season of Tracker, which premieres Oct. 13 on CBS.
It’s no surprise that hard work runs in the 47-year-old actor’s Midwestern blood. “My parents are really hard-working people, and they’re from the Midwest, so there’s definitely something to that,” he said ahead of the Tracker premiere following the Super Bowl in February. “It’s funny, right, when you meet someone from the Midwest, you automatically think, ‘Oh, brother or sister.’ It’s interesting, right?”
Our Illinois-to-TV journey began in 2002 when he played the often-shirtless Fox Crane for four years on the NBC daytime drama Passions before moving to primetime for heroic roles like Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) on the CW’s Smallville (as well as Arthur C. Curry, aka Aquaman, in an unsold TV episode). Guest appearances on shows like Revenge and Mistresses followed, as well as a 2014-16 return to daytime as Adam Newman on The Young and the Restless. But his career took off in 2016 when he began playing troubled actor Kevin Pearson, one of the Big 3 siblings alongside Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Kate (Chrissy Metz) on the NBC hit This Is Us. In fact, before This Is Us ended after six seasons in 2022, the show’s executive producer and director Ken Olin gave Hartley a copy of Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Never Game and the two sold Tracker to CBS. (Elwood Reid was later brought on as showrunner and executive producer.) Scheduling the premiere after Super Bowl LVIII gave the show its best possible chance of success, though Hartley has long known that sure bets don’t exist on TV. “You never assume or doubt that it’s going to become what it has become. I knew Tracker was really good, but, like I said with This Is Us, you never know if you’re going to find an audience. There’s no way to know.”
An impressive 18.4 million people stayed after the Chiefs beat the 49ers 25-22 to watch Tracker’s live premiere, and that number grew to 30 million after factoring in multiple platforms and delayed viewing. When the show aired in its regular Sunday night time slot, viewership grew week after week, prompting CBS to renew it for a second season after airing just four episodes. Tracker will be the number one regular-season series for the 2023-24 season, and according to CBS, it’s the first time a first-year series has been ranked number one since Survivor debuted in 2000. As the 20-episode second season prepares to premiere on Oct. 13, Hartley explained what he learned from Season 1 that helped shape Season 2 and talked about Jensen Ackles’ return as Colter’s brother, Russell, in the fourth episode. two of the new season.
