Justin Hartley Takes the Lead

Rising at 5 am may sound early to a lot of us but it’s a typical start to the day for Justin Hartley. But, come on, would you expect anything less from the guy who is both starring in and executive producing Tracker, last season’s biggest broadcast series? “You wake up in the dark and then you work all day and kind of open your eyes and all of a sudden it’s dark again,” Hartley laughs from Vancouver, Canada, where he’s on day three of an eight-day shoot for the second season’s fourth episode. He adds with sincerity, “It’s a lovely life.”

Today is what the Illinois native calls a “light day,” which seems like anything but considering it’s filled with meetings, reading Tracker scripts (and others he may want to develop), working out, grabbing a bite to eat, checking in with his 20-year-old daughter Isabella as well as spending time with wife Sofia Pernas. Also, pressing pause on all that to talk with this reporter about Tracker’s second season, which begins October 13 on CBS.

It’s no surprise that hard work is in the 47-year-old actor’s Midwest blood. “My parents are really hard workers and they’re from the Midwest as well, so there’s definitely something to that,” he said prior to Tracker’s post-Super Bowl premiere in February “It is funny, isn’t it, when you meet someone from the Midwest, you automatically are like, ‘oh, brother, or sister.’ It’s an interesting thing, right?”

The path from Illinois to our TVs started in 2002 when he played often-shirtless Fox Crane for four years on NBC’s daytime soap Passions before leaping to prime time 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 pilot). More guest roles came along on dramas like Revenge and Mistresses as well as a daytime return from 2014-16 as Adam Newman on The Young and the Restless. But his career catapulted 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 NBC’s heartfelt hit This Is Us.

It was actually before This Is Us ended after six seasons in 2022 that the show’s executive producer and director Ken Olin handed Hartley a copy of Jeffery Deaver’s novel The Never Game and the two sold Tracker to CBS. (Elwood Reid was then brought on as showrunner and executive producer.) Scheduling its debut after Super Bowl LVIII gave the show its best possible shot at success, though Hartley learned long ago that sure bets don’t exist in TV. “You don’t ever suppose or suspect that it’s going to turn into what it turned into. I knew Tracker was really good but, like I said with This Is Us, you just never know if you’re going to find the audience. There’s no way to tell.”

An impressive 18.4 million people stuck around after the Chiefs beat the 49ers 25-22 to watch Tracker’s premiere live, and that number climbed to 30 million once various platforms and delayed viewing were figured in. When the drama settled into its regular Sunday night slot, viewership rose week-to-week, prompting a second season renewal by CBS after only four episodes had aired. Tracker would go on to become the number one regular series for the 2023-24 season and, according to CBS, the first time a first-year series had ranked as number one since Survivor’s debut in 2000.

As the 20-episode second season sets to launch on October 13, Hartley explains what he learned from Season 1 that helped shape Season 2 and talks about Jensen Ackles’ return as Colter’s brother, Russell, in the new season’s second episode.

After Season 1 of any show, you look at what worked and what didn’t. How much did that impact how you all shaped Season 2?

Justin Hartley: That’s a great question. We don’t take this lightly, what happened with the show. Now that we’ve had all the success, you look at what really worked and what we want to do more of that we think the audience would want. You put those things over in one box and you hopefully try to refine the project and the show and make it more streamlined. But you learn as you go and I’m sure we’ll have the same thing after season two where we’ll do that.

The family mystery was a big thread through the first season. Do we get into it again right off the bat in season two? What else is on Colter’s plate?

In the first two episodes, we absolutely do. Also, right off the bat what happens is we’re introduced to a job that Colter got a decade ago. There are two sisters and one of them goes missing. Colter is hired but he’s never been able to crack it and it haunts him. For the first time, we see this guy who is such a hero and always does the right thing but he wasn’t able to find the girl and bring her back. It says a lot about him as a person that he carries it with him but he does not let things go.

Jensen Ackles is back in Episode 2 as Colter’s brother Russell. Safe to say the show digs into the family mystery more?

It has more to do with the family thing. We left off first season with Colter having a lot of questions. He doesn’t even know who he can trust anymore. At the very beginning of last season, he thought his brother was involved in his father’s death, and then come to find out, wait a minute, he might not have had anything to do with it. Also, why is Dory (Colter’s sister, played by Melissa Roxburgh) hiding all this stuff?

So, Russell comes back and Colter’s got a couple of questions for him about this Dory situation and the box that she has and does Russell know where it is? Russell’s also pretty heroic in Episode 2 and they get involved in this really black ops, kind of strange thing. And these government officials start asking about our dad out of the blue, and you’re like, “Whoa, what’s this all about?” So, in every episode, Dad is becoming a little more vindicated maybe, or just maybe completely nuts. We don’t know. We dive a little bit deeper into that.

What’s Colter’s team up to? We know Robin Weigert is not back as Teddi but where does that leave her partner, Velma (Abby McEnany)?

At the end of last season, Reenie (Fiona Rene) decides that she’s leaving her firm and going to go it on her own. She’s got that big life change and, in a way, she teams up with Velma and you’ll see a lot of the two of them working together, which is a really interesting dynamic. They both have common goals with just some completely different ways of going about their business. Bobby (Eric Graise) our computer whiz, is hacking away. Then we have a couple of really cool surprises coming for Reenie.

Let’s talk about guest stars in the new season. Will Melissa Roxburgh return as Colter’s sister, Dory? I know she’s busy with her new series (NBC’s The Hunting Party).

Her show ends [production] way before we end so we can bring her back in the latter episodes of our show. And then Jennifer Morrison‘s coming back to direct Episode 6. I’m sure her character will be back.

Sofia is back in the third episode as fellow tracker Billie Matalon. That must’ve been a fun week having her back.

Oh, she’s the best and such a talent. She comes in and she just delivers and brings so much more to it than is on the pages. It’s just been a blessing having her and then also I get to spend time with her! It’s my favorite days in the world when I get to work with her.

What happens in the episode?

She calls on Colter because she needs his help for something. And of course, he’s like, “You need my help, huh?” It’s that kind of thing, like, “Well, okay, then ask for it. I’ll help you. You got to ask me,” that kind of thing.

How are you being challenged in Season 2 either as an actor or with the physical stuff?

Well, the episode order is a lot bigger so that’ll be a challenge. We’re only on Episode 4, so I feel great, Jim, to be honest with you. But it’s classic me. In three months, we’ll see how I feel. But there’s more physicality in certain episodes. The fights certainly are more physical but I don’t mind a bruise here so I just trying to keep my body healthy.

Going back to Jensen. You guys obviously have a lot of fun working together but when did you two first meet?

Well, we were both on the CW. He was on Supernatural and I had joined Smallville. I got to know him and Jared and all those guys over there at Supernatural. We’re all actors displaced here in Vancouver and we have a lot in common. He’s a family man and he’s got kids and loves his work and loves his family and loves his fans. We’re the same age and we just developed a friendship. I’d never had a chance to work with him until Tracker. He’s a very busy man, but I love working with him. It’s a treat.

Where do you see the show going, say, five years down the line. Do you have a vision that far ahead or are you just focusing on what’s in front of you?

That’s a good question. We’ve thought about it. Well, first of all, I would just say that, from your mouth to God’s ear, if we’re lucky enough to do a third season, a fourth season, a fifth season, a sixth season, that would be wonderful. I think the show works in the long run in that we have adopted this idea that although we are a Rockford Files [type show], we do develop the character going forward.

What I really loved about This Is Us…look, I hate to keep talking about it, but I just adore that show and being a part of it. I just love that when you watch a show like that and you tune into Season 1 and then you tune into the last season, you see the development of the character and you go, “Wait a minute, are they playing different roles?” But then if you watch it throughout the years, you go, “Oh my gosh,” and you experience those things with the characters. As competent and confident as Colter is, I don’t at all think for a second that he doesn’t have a ton to learn, especially about himself and his family and all that. Going forward, I think that will be how the show lives on a long runway, is that we keep developing this character and he becomes better at what he’s doing.  He’s a restless man, and for an audience member, at least shows that I love to watch, you love to see that growth of a character and we have that.

Tracker, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, October 13, 8/7c, CBS, Next Day on Paramount+