When Tracker returns for its fourth season, expect the unexpected.
One of television’s most popular and consistent series since its debut, Tracker has always worked to tell human stories week in and week out, and that’s a winning formula that will never change.
But with new opportunities and more time to craft new tales and expand others, Tracker won’t be holding back.
While Tracker Season 3 Episode 22 saw Colter and Russell confront the sins of their father’s past, and Russell set off on yet another clandestine quest, Tracker Season 4 will certainly revisit the Shaw family drama, but it’s also looking to dive into other areas.
The series has flirted with Colter and romance before, but they’re going there this season, while also expanding on the core characters’ personal lives.
Lucky for us, we got to speak with showrunner Elwood Reid ahead of the new season, and as usual, he was forthright and candid as we broke down what’s ahead and what could be in the pipeline.
(Did someone say flashback episode?)
From a new love interest to a deeper look into various characters’ backgrounds, along with some upcoming cases that sound very intriguing — and unlike anything the show has done before — Reid breaks down what’s sure to be an epic return for one of CBS’s veteran hits.
TV Fanatic: Unlike the second season finale, which ended with this life-changing secret being exposed to Colter, the third season ended on a much more hopeful, calmer note.
Knowing that, where do we find Colter when season four begins, and how has everything he learned about his family changed him coming into this season?
Well, it’s funny, we talk about that a lot. At least in my mind, what we’ve done with the family and the backstory.
Let’s say anybody has a family; there are secrets and scars you carry, and you either figure out a way to cover those scars up, move forward, or incorporate them into some part of your personality that makes you tick.
And seeing the two brothers, the way they deal with it. Russell kind of lives moment to moment and is like, “Fuck it, I’m in the future. The past is the past.” Colter’s more of a brooding guy, and the secret we learn at the end is just to leverage Russell into doing a job he doesn’t want to do.
Now he has a secret that Colter doesn’t know. How does that play?
And moving into this season, one of the things that we’re trying to do is learn a little bit more about what Colter does in between jobs.
Does he have a relationship? We’re going to start a relationship this season with somebody. And what does that look like? Does that put him at odds with his job?
Does that person get leveraged somehow? Does something tragic happen? Or do they just go out to lunch every three or four episodes and have a romance? I don’t know.
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We’re exploring that because I keep saying this all the time: I’m very lucky to have an actor of Justin’s caliber because he can fight somebody in one scene and then be emotional and sensitive in the next scene. He’s got that ability to do both of those things in his toolbox.
So that’s sort of, I think, the mandate for this season. It’s also to test him. As you said before, the past tested him, but what happens if something in the present tense really sticks with him and he fails or doesn’t get a result? What would that look like?
How could we bring Colter, crumble him a little, and bang him up a little emotionally and physically? Those are the things we’re going to try to do this season.
It’s funny you brought up the love interest, because that was a question I had for you: we haven’t seen him in a relationship. The closest he’s ever been is whatever he has going on with Billie, which is very sporadic.
So why do you think now is the time to introduce that element to Colter?
When it comes to Billie, she’s someone who’s in the same line of work, so they know the deal, and they know not to get involved. It is what it is.
It’s not a relationship of convenience, but it’s one of those things where, “Hey, it’s like when we’re in the same town, we can hook up, and that’s cool, and we can keep moving on.”
But what would happen if somebody got to Colter emotionally and it put him in a quandary with his job or with something? Is it leverage someone could use against him? Because one of the things we talk a lot about with him is that, because he has no past and no house, no one can really ever get to him.
What would happen if a relationship got to him emotionally, and then someone who wanted to do him harm or leverage him some way got to that person?
I think that those are interesting tropes and fun things to play with him. But again, a lot of us ask the question because I see it online.
He does have chemistry with a lot of these random people he meets in these places. You go, “If the show were to keep going, did we miss a hookup or something like that?”
I don’t think that’s who he is as a character. I think he’s a white knight who comes in, and he does a good job. He’s like the Clint Eastwood character: he shows up, does a good job, then leaves and has no attachments.
What would happen if we saw him get emotionally messy? What would that look like? And his version of messy is probably not your eyes’ version of messy, but just a little bit.
One of the things I really liked that you guys did in season two and in season three was when you had the Gina Picket case, so something from his past. It was a mystery that played out alongside the cases of the week in the background.
Obviously, you have the Shaw family stuff, which is always there, but you also had Dr. Jukic and how that all came together in the end. Is that something that you guys are looking to do again this season?
Yes.
Another mystery that’ll unfold over time?
Yeah. There’s, of course, a couple of things we left on the table. There’s the Mel thing. But we’re hoping to, at least as the goal so far, show it happening in real time. What would happen if he failed or stumbled on something ongoing?
I don’t want to date myself with references, but what would happen if he had that bête noire, that thing out there? What would happen if he had that person who was out there that he knew was out there, a monster was out there, or somebody was doing something?
Would that gnaw at him? Or somebody who killed somebody he was looking for and got away with it? How would he deal with that? Because, you remember, the show always ends when he finds the person.
And nine out of ten times, he gets the bad guy, but what happens if one of those people gets away?
Those are things we’re trying to play with this season. And serialization’s always tough because you have to find ways to service it in a ticking-clock episode every week. The family stuff felt like we could always pick it up, and it didn’t feel like it was touching anything.
But when you start to deal with other cases, you don’t want it to swamp the case of the week.
The person who’s missing that week, you want him to be fully invested in that, not have his mind on something else. But those are things that we’re playing with this year as far as character goes.
And you mentioned Mel, so it’s safe to say she’ll be back on board?
Yeah, yeah. Got to.
What does this season look like for Randy and Reenie?
Before I got on the phone with you, we were literally talking about Randy. Again, Randy’s this really interesting character. And Chris is a personal friend of mine. I’ve worked with him before, so he’s a guy I brought to the show.
But he’s a guy who does this morally gray job. He has skills. If they were in the wrong hands, he could do a lot of damage.
So, we’re literally breaking an episode right now where something that he did, or a mentor of his, comes back to bite him in the ass. What does that look like?
Because again, he’s the character, at least from my standpoint, where Mel has the backstory with her mom, but Colter and Randy have this really close relationship. It’s the guy he probably talks to more than anybody else in the show.
And what would happen if we started to learn a little bit more about his background, Randy’s background, or what made him, or did someone show him this, mentor him? We know his relationship with Bobby, but Randy could have some cool secrets. And how would that play out this season?
Again, I know Chris, the actor, can handle anything we can throw at him.
So those are things we’re literally playing with today and breaking an episode with something from Randy’s past coming back to bite him and putting him in jeopardy.
Fans, obviously, and by fans, I mean me, love the moments when everyone gets to come together. Those are some of my favorite episodes.
We’re doing that. We’re doing that. We’re doing it.
Okay, good. So, there are plans to get the whole team together?
I know. It’s so fucking hard because it’s like, again, if we get lazy, check with me in season nine, where every episode takes place in Denver.
I mean, it’s so hard, because you don’t want them bumping into each other like, “Oh, I just happened to be in Milwaukee this week, and you’re solving the case.”
We do that where we can, but I do like those crosses because the phone calls and the Zooms get old after a while.
So yeah, again, it’s what I’ve been talking about: ultimately, I think all successful TV shows become families that you want to spend time with.
And this is a little bit of a dysfunctional family. It’s a bit of a long-distance family, but this season, if we do it right, we’re going to learn a little more about everyone’s personal lives, backstories, and things like that.
I think those are gifts I like to give to the long-term viewers because I do think there are some people that just tune in, “Oh my God, the little kid got kidnapped from the bus station. Is he going to find him at the end of the episode?” Of course.
But I think that for hardcore viewers, it’s about learning what made Colter a tracker, learning about the cases that he failed at, learning some more about Reenie’s family, her sister that we’ve mentioned, and her father.
There’s a ton of stuff to mine with Randy because of the world he’s in. I don’t imagine he’s just been sitting around waiting for Colter to bring him in. He’s got a past, so playing with that is going to be a lot of fun.
Obviously, we talked a little bit about the family stuff and everything with the Shaw family in the beginning. But how much more are you planning to peel back on that this season? Because you did a lot last season.
At the end of last season, we learned that there was that one little secret that Russell learned about, that there was that file that was shown to him. That’s going to play itself out. I don’t know how much more I want to mine with, “Dad was a bad guy, who’s a complicated guy.”
Whatever. We know that. Everyone’s got messy parents and family life. Everybody who watches the show.
So I think we’ve mined that, but as far as the family goes, what we like is that Russell’s being leveraged to do a job, and does he tell Colter that?
When that job inevitably goes sideways, does Colter learn that secret, or does he hold that secret eternally from Colter? How does that play in their relationship?
I think that’s fun.
But I mentioned this earlier: I feel like there’s a gap in Colter. We visited his little bat cave, or his place where he lives.
He has to have had another life and done other things before he became a tracker, or things that haunted him. It’s just filling that story in; it’s hard because he doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to.
Russell would be one of them, for sure. Maybe his sister, too. Not his mother. That’s a different relationship.
And Randy, he’s always kind of like the quarterback, so he doesn’t usually want to show… weakness is the wrong word, but he’s the guy with all the answers.
So that’s why we’re trying to start this relationship: like, what would happen if someone started to poke and probe and ask questions that the audience wants to know about Colter? What would that look like?
And how could we get backstory with Colter that doesn’t necessarily relate to his family, which we fully explored, like, “Oh, I didn’t know that about Colter. That explains this. That explains why he doesn’t have long-term relationships,” that kind of thing.
Have you thought about doing a pre-us-meeting-Colter episode?
Yes. Oh my God. I mean, it’s funny. We talk about doing flashback episodes. Could we do that? We’re toying with the idea. It’s tricky. I think you could do it. I’m just trying to think of shows that have done it.
It’s the blessing and curse of a long-running network show: people want to know what they’re getting. It’s why we go to McDonald’s; you know what you’re getting. They want to know, but you’ve got to spice it up every once in a while.
It’s sometimes like, “Oh, I hated that.”
I know we do try to vary the episodes as much as possible, because from a writing standpoint, if you don’t push or introduce new things, then the show gets stale in a weird way.
But his character’s very straight. It’s hard because he has this kind of Clint Eastwood type. He’s a cipher; you don’t know much about him. So, introducing little bits has a huge impact.
Yeah, as opposed to dropping it all.
Yeah. It’s funny you bring that up because it’s an idea that comes up all the time in the writers’ room about that flashback episode. What would that look like? It’s fun.
You are three seasons in, heading into your fourth. How do you keep some of these cases feeling fresh and original? And what are some of the cases we can expect to see in the early parts of season four?
I know it sounds a little bit boring, but one of the things that, in my opinion, makes the show work is that unlike a person who’s “doing a job” because they’re being paid to do it and they do it a million times or whatever, what I do like about Colter is he does emotionally invest with the people that hire him.
I do think the show works when it’s emotional. We’re going to meet a character this year who does what Colter does, but from a different perspective. What does that look like?
We’re toying with the idea of bringing up someone who either gets away or challenges Colter, and does he hunt him? Is it somebody who’s hunting all the time?
And again, what would happen? Because we haven’t done it.
What would happen if he took a morally gray job? He takes a job because it always feels like he takes it not just for the money, but because he believes in the people and believes that they love the people they’re looking for.
But what would happen if you were trying to go find someone who wasn’t exactly lovable or worth saving? What would that look like morally? Or what would happen if he fails at one of these things?
Those are ideas that, again, are tools that we have. I think we’re going to explore this season, because in the fourth season, it does feel like you’ve got to start flexing and doing cases that are outside of the box.
Not all the time, because I think part of the reason people respond to the show is that they know what they’re… I would say “they know what they’re getting” is the wrong phrase, but there’s something old-fashioned about the character. But it doesn’t mean we can’t push things.
Absolutely. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but…
No. I know. I’d hate to blow it up, and then you’re like, “What the fuck is this show?”
Exactly.
Justin would never let me do it. It’s funny, Justin has a firm grasp of the character, and he’s very good at calibrating the emotion with the physical stuff. He’s really that, and I take my lead from him that way.
He and I talk a lot about where the character’s going, and I think he trusts me and I trust him.
He’s not going to suddenly start cracking jokes every episode. He knows that I’m carefully trying to tell this longer-arc story.
Tracker Season 4 premieres on Sunday, October 4, 2026, at a special delayed time of 9:30/8:30c on CBS.
Beginning October 11, 2026, the show will move to its normal time of 9/8c.
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