Justin Hartley’s new drama series Tucker has one of the most coveted TV spots of the year, and fans are excited.
The 47-year-old is the leading man in CBS’ new show Tracker, and it will air its first-ever episode immediately after the Super Bowl on Sunday, meaning tens of millions of viewers could be tuning in to the hotly-anticipated show. Justin, best known for playing Kevin Pearson on the NBC series This Is Us, is keeping his shirt on and will be embracing the gritty action-packed storylines as survivalist Colter Shaw.
Tracker is based on the best-selling 2019 novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, and follows lone wolf Colter as he travels around the US using his expert tracking skills to help individuals, as well as law enforcement, to solve mysteries. While gaining a reward for himself once the job is complete, he also has to contend with a fractured family life, meaning he finds solace in working alone. The show also features Big Little Lies star Robin Weigert, Abby McEnany, Eric Graise, and Fiona Rene, and Justin serves as executive producer on the show, after bringing it to life alongside Ken Olin.
The first full-length trailer for the series was released earlier this month, and fans are keen to see the show finally air, after it was originally due to be released last year but was delayed by the Hollywood strikes. Tracker only began shooting in November, and was fast-tracked to a series premiere in the post-Super Bowl slot. Justin revealed he had been desperate to bring Tracker to the small screen since the book was released in 2019, and told USA Today it had been a dream for “years” to finally debut his passion project.
“All these years later, here we are gearing up for a Super Bowl debut. It’s pretty surreal. They’re giving us prime real estate. Hopefully, people hop right in and continue the action,” he said. Justin warned This Is Us fans that Tracker is a “different animal” to the hit NBC show, and said his character won’t be shirtless unless totally necessary to the storyline.
The actor, who married Sofia Pernas in 2021 and shares daughter Isabella, 19, with ex-wife Lindsay Korman, admitted he was relieved his character in Tracker was so far removed from his own comfortable and content family life. “The fact that Colter doesn’t have a girlfriend, I think that’s one of the things I wanted to sort of keep,” he told People. “I feel like if he has a wife and a girlfriend and a family, and he continues to do all these dangerous things, that’s kind of selfish.”
Tracker will premiere after Super Bowl LVIII on February 11 on CBS