CBS Proves Justin Hartley Didn't Lie About His Promised Tracker Season 4 Change

Published Nov 14, 2026, 12:00 PM EST

Antonella Gugliersi (she/them) has been a feature writer for Screen Rant since 2021. While studying for her bachelor’s in Economics & Management, they started writing about movies and TV shows for Turin-based The Unconventional Mag. After a brief internship at TPI, she decided she wanted to pursue journalism and graduated with a degree in International Journalism from Brunel University.

Tracker season 4 being in full swing shows that the crime drama kept the promises star and executive producer Justin Hartley made about season 4. After the major changes introduced by Tracker seasons 2 and 3 in the form of Robin Weigert, Eric Graise, and Abby McEnany’s exits, CBS’s most-watched scripted TV series needed to re-establish its foundations beyond Colter Shaw. Tracker season 4’s cast changes, which involved Randy and Mel’s promotions to series regulars, did so by giving Colter a stabler team after years of adjustments.

A more reliable group of supporting characters wasn’t the only change introduced by Tracker season 4. Tracker being awarded a tax credit moved production of the CBS crime drama from Vancouver, its home for three seasons, to Los Angeles, providing Tracker season 4 with new landscapes to use for Colter’s adventures. Both were behind-the-scenes changes that nevertheless had significant consequences for Tracker season 4’s story, forcing the CBS drama to find time to explore its relatively new team and showcase different landscapes as a result.

Tracker’s formula always heavily relied on Justin Hartley’s Colter Shaw. His survivalist training, coupled with a life on the road bringing him to the next missing person case, made his tendency to go at it alone what we have come to expect from the CBS drama. Tracker season 4 tried to switch things up by introducing a possible love interest, but it also raised the stakes of Colter’s cases, proving Justin Hartley kept the promise about one specific Tracker season 4 change.

Justin Hartley Promised That Tracker Season 4 Is More Physical (& It's True)

CBS

In an appearance on CBS Mornings on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Hartley discussed several of the innovations of Tracker season 4, including a desire to always push it and do something different, not to change what “people find comforting” completely, but still trying to implement changes that push it “every single year, and every single episode.”

Hartley shared that the way they approached that for Tracker season 4 was to add a lot more physicality. The Tracker star and executive producer also mentioned that wasn’t the only change, mentioning that they also tried to push the story more, resulting in bothering Colter more. You can view the appearance below:

This couldn’t have been more evident than in Tracker season 4, episode 5, “Need to Know.” The Tracker season 4 episode that saw Russell’s return involved plenty of stunts, and not all of them revolved around Colter, as Grant Valko’s gruesome fight at the field office proved. Still, while Tracker included plenty of combat scenes during its first three installments, it was rare to see Colter flying off from one building to the next, proving that Tracker season 4 kept the promise Hartley made about the crime drama packing more action.

Why Being Grittier Is Good For Tracker's Future

CBS

Tracker’s procedural nature and sole protagonist make it difficult for the CBS drama to introduce massive changes, as there isn’t an extensive team that can take over from Colter, and the weekly cases are the foundation of the crime drama. A bigger involvement of law enforcement officers wouldn’t work to keep the procedural aspects of Tracker alive, as the story always revolved around Colter.

Tracker could include a Colter Shaw replacement by adding a more permanent helper by his side, one trained by Colter that could introduce new aspects of his character to the story. That doesn’t seem what Tracker season 4 is looking for, though, as Colter’s aloofness persists, even as the CBS drama shows more of his character through the weekly cases.

What Tracker can do to continue being relevant as one of the biggest network TV series is to up the ante action-wise. After all, that’s already part of Tracker’s toolbox, and putting Colter through bigger and riskier challenges can also highlight what else Ashton Shaw taught Colter with the intention of making him self-sufficient in all kinds of situations.