Justin Hartley‘s hit CBS series Tracker wrote off multiple main characters in the season 3 premiere — but what excuse did they use?
During the Sunday, October 19, episode, Reenie (Fiona Rene) acknowledged Velma’s (Abby McEnany) absence, telling Randy (Chris Lee), “Honestly, I have no idea. She went to go see [her wife] Teddi. She’s trying to save her marriage. I have a whole bunch of resumes to review this week.”
Randy, meanwhile, received a text from cousin Bobby (Eric Graise).
“Thx. Miss u 2. Tell the gang I say hi,” read the message. Randy elaborated on Bobby’s offscreen exit, saying, “He’s killing it. He quit his job officially at the repair shop and now he is some encryption specialist at a new startup.”
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Randy continued: “Between the stock options and the salary, he is bringing home the bacon.”
CBS found success with Tracker immediately after it premiered in February 2024 to record-breaking ratings. Viewers have since tuned in week after week to see fictional survivalist Colter (Hartley) travel the country to help solve various missing persons cases.
As Colter has gotten help, the ensemble cast has grown with their respective characters, such as handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby and attorney Reenie. After joining Tracker in season 1, Weigert’s character was written off in the premiere with her wife, Velma, admitting that they needed some distance. Velma then started working with Reenie and Teddi wasn’t discussed again in season 2.
“[Teddi] is going to be there for a while. She is helping her mom get sorted. I was getting in the way you might say and it really wasn’t good,” Velma said at the beginning of season 2. “So I came back. Don’t you worry because I am keeping busy.”
The concerns about the show’s main characters kept coming when Graise was noticeably absent from six episodes. His cousin Randy was brought in to help Colter before Bobby returned, which caused backlash from viewers who grew used to seeing Graise on their screen.
News later broke that Graise and McEnany wouldn’t be coming back — at least for now.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not just people that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the answer.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “The challenge is when you got to learn about them, which I thought was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is not having it fall into a formula.”
Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
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“The only rule I really have of the show is each week Colter is going to come to a new place and there’s going to be a new case. How he gets those answers and what he uses on the team, that’s all something that’s up for grabs,” Reid teased. “Meeting these [local] weird characters is something we’re going to try to do more of as the season goes on. Just Colter coming in and interacting with other characters. That’s fun to see Justin flex those muscles with really good guest cast members.”
Ahead of season 3, Reid defended the decision to shake up season 3.
“Justin has to carry so much of the show. So I don’t want the other characters that are in the show to just be phone-a-friend where whenever he’s in trouble, he just picks up the phone. The challenge in season 3 has been how do we build actual good story out of [it],” Reid teased.
Reid pointed out that Reenie and Randy are still in the picture.
“Reenie takes a lot of the guilt [from her season 2 case] on and she’s brought Randy up there to fix it. You get to see them in the office. That forms a good bond between those two. Then we’re going to bring in another character as she tries to expand her law office a little bit. That will be interesting,” he continued. “It’s just building out those story lines. The challenge we set up for ourselves this season was to build out those people’s world a little bit.”
Reid added: “It’s about trying to get a little bit of lightness [into the show] because sometimes Colter is doing some really dark and heavy stuff. It’s life or death.”
Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.
