In the early days of the Super Bowl, the networks didn’t plan any special “lead-out” programs to run after the game, opting to go with standard fare such as “Lassie” and “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.” From the late 1970s on, the programming became more specialized, from the “Super Bowl Sunday” episode of “All in the Family” in 1978 to pilots for shows such as “Airwolf” and “The Wonder Years” in the 1980s through special, extended-length chapters of hit shows, e.g., “The One After the Super Bowl” episode of “Friends” in 1996 and the one-hour “Stress Relief” episode of “The Office” in 2009.
You’ve got a monster lead-in audience tuned to your network; last year’s Super Bowl drew more than 115 million viewers to Fox. So, you can either bolster the audience for an existing hit — or give the coveted slot to a new show.
This year, CBS is going the showcase route with the series premiere of “Tracker,” which is the very definition of comfort-viewing television and (based on the three episodes made available to me) seems poised to make an extended run. With Orland Park’s own Justin Hartley (“This Is Us”) doing strong work as the square-jawed anti-hero who is tough as nails but has a good heart, and a wonderful supporting cast of instantly likable regulars, “Tracker” has a classic “case of the week” formula that dates all the way back to shows such as “The Fugitive” and continues with current-day hits like “Poker Face.”
Based on the novel “The Never Game” by Glen Ellyn’s Jeffery Deaver, “Tracker” opens with Hartley’s Colter Shaw (now there’s a TV hero name for you) administering to a hiker who has severely injured her leg in the Nevada desert. They could remain in place and wait for a rescue team, but that could take hours. As Colter calmly explains, “We stay, I put your odds of survival, leg intact, 15 to 20% ... but if you let me stabilize your injury and carefully carry you out of there, those odds for you and your leg, they go way up … We’re talking 90, 95%.”
That’s Colter. He’ll wow you with his tracking and survival skills, and he’ll win you over with the math. Oh, and within five minutes of the season premiere, he doffs his shirt for absolutely no reason other than to let us see that when it comes to percentages, Justin Hartley/Colter Shaw apparently has about .01% body fat.
Living in an awesome Airstream trailer hitched to his black-on-black GMC pickup truck, Colter travels these United States as a tracker, or as he likes to describe it, a “rewardist” who finds missing people in exchange for whatever cash bounty is being offered. (“Tracker” was filmed in Vancouver and the surrounding area, which can pass for Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, etc.) The series premiere has Colter investigating the disappearance of a 14-year-old who appears to have been taken by his biological father, who has a criminal record. We also learn about Colter’s back story and how he became such a skilled, lone-wolf survivalist — and we find out that someone is trying to track down the tracker, and we’ll leave it at that.
Even though Colter travels alone, occasionally enjoying a brief dalliance or flirtation with a hot local doctor or police officer, he relies on his trusty support team, most of whom communicate with him solely by phone or FaceTime from their respective locales. Chicago treasure Abby McEnany (“Work in Progress”) is Velma and Robin Weigert (“Deadwood”) is Velma’s wife, Teddi. Together, they work as Colter’s handlers — setting him up with jobs, helping him with background checks, and providing emotional support whether he wants it or not. (McEnany and Weigert are so good together we can already envision a spinoff somewhere down the road.)
Eric Graise is Bobby, the obligatory quick-witted tech expert, and Fiona Rene is Reenie, a hotshot attorney who comes to the rescue when Colter’s law-bending ways get him into trouble and oh, they might have a bit of a past, these two.
That’s your show right there. Each week, Colter gets a different assignment (he’s on his way to Manhattan, Kansas, at the end of Episode 3), and we have the feeling we’re going to learn more about that certain person who has been trying to find Colter. This is the kind of show you can faithfully watch from week to week — but you can also drop in any time, as the episodes are largely self-contained and are designed to provide maximum Viewer Satisfaction by the close of the hour. With the post-Super Bowl timeslot guaranteeing an enormous audience, “Tracker” is on track to become CBS’ next hit.
