The first two seasons of Tracker indicate the show has a winning formula, but a change in Tracker season 3 could help make sure viewers do not get bored with the current format. Tracker sees Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) travel around the United States while picking up missing persons cases for the reward money. He is a very good investigator, but nearly every episode of the series is currently set up the same way.

If Tracker wants to keep up its momentum (and retain its large viewer numbers), it will not always be able to stick with the same formula. The series will have to find ways to shake up the show and keep it feeling fresh for long-time audience while still appealing to new audience as well.

Tracker Is Ripe For A Major Change After 2 Hit Seasons

The Procedural Format Can Become Boring

After two seasons on the air, Tracker has established itself as a formidable procedural with ratings that even beat NCIS, CBS’s top show. It has established its ensemble cast of characters and the typical format of the series. In every episode, Colter Shaw takes on a new case with the Tracker team, who all help him from afar. He investigates with the help of locals in a new community, allowing the show to cycle through a steady stream of guest stars, and by the end of the hour, he has solved the case - not always with a happy ending.

...procedurals run the risk of becoming too predictable for the audience.

The show has already found a few ways to make this procedural format more interesting in its second season by bringing back a few guest stars from the first season, having Colter track a dog instead of a missing person, bringing in some possibly supernatural elements, and even framing an episode like a claustrophobic horror story at a snowed-in cabin. While those have all helped to keep viewers tuning in, procedurals run the risk of becoming too predictable for the audience.

There’s an easy fix for that for a show like Tracker.

Tracker Season 3 Should Do More Serialized Storytelling

Tracker Needs Viewers To Keep Tuning In

The advantage of a procedural TV format is that viewers can easily pick up and drop a show as they want. While that means new viewers can pick up a procedural at just about any time and understand the characters and the storylines, it also means long-term viewers might get bored and feel like the stories are simply repeating themselves. Serialized storytelling, even in part, can go a long way in helping a show retain viewers.

Serialized storytelling means allowing guest stars to stick around for more than one episode at a time and allowing storylines to play out for more than one episode at a time. Tracker has already experimented with that idea to a degree by bringing back both Billie (Sofia Pernas) and Keaton (Brent Sexton) to assist Colter on different cases and having Reenie (Fiona Rene) and her new boss as a B-storyline in season 2. It also featured Colter's "white whale" case, but even that case was solved relatively quickly without much set-up for the audience.

Seeing characters for more than one or two episodes in a season allows a series to establish new character dynamics and tell longer stories. It could also shake up the existing dynamic of the core cast as new relationships are formed in the world of Colter’s cases. Seeing any of the guest stars who have already appeared more than once for a longer arc could allow the show to really flesh those personalities out and develop new storylines with the existing ensemble.

Tracker will return to television for the 2025 TV season on Sunday nights on CBS.

Longer Arcs Would Make It Easier For Tracker Season 3 To Focus On The Shaw Family Mystery

Tracker Only Has One Longer Arc Right Now

Despite Tracker’s first two seasons being very much episodic, there is one serialized aspect of the story so far. Colter Shaw’s childhood and the mystery surrounding what happened to Colter’s father is the only story to be continuous throughout the show. The series, however, prefers to hint at that story arc at the start and end of each season, while devoting the rest of the season to one-off episodes.

The way Tracker is set up now, a viewer could tune in to the season premieres and finales and skip the rest of the season if they wanted to know more about Colter Shaw’s past. That’s not the best set-up to allow audience who are watching the entire season to details. With a more serialized format, the show could sprinkle those clues to Colter’s past more heavily throughout the season. Fans would be paying attention and tuning in for the entire run.

Tracker season 3 does not have to change up the show entirely. There are plenty of aspects of the procedural series that work in the show’s favor, like Hartley’s grounded nature in the role of Colter Shaw and his ability to make the character fit into every story the writers throw at him. Creating longer arcs, however, even just a few episodes at a time, would help Tracker season 3 to tell more compelling stories and give the audience more time to get to know the characters.

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