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Justin Hartley’s series Tracker has elevated one of its cast members following several departures as it gears up for its third season.
According to Deadline, Chris Lee, known for his role as Randy, has been promoted to a series regular. Lee first appeared in season 2 as the cousin of Bobby, played by Eric Graise, and his role has since expanded.
Since its debut in February 2024, Tracker has been a triumph for CBS, captivating audiences with its record-breaking ratings. The show follows the adventures of Colter, portrayed by Hartley, a survivalist who travels across the nation to resolve various missing persons cases.
As Colter receives assistance, the show’s ensemble cast has also evolved, featuring characters like handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby, and attorney Reenie. After appearing in the first season, Weigert’s character was written off in the premiere with Velma expressing the need for space. Velma subsequently began collaborating with Reenie, while Teddi’s storyline was not revisited in the second season.
As the series heads into its third season, Tracker has seen the exit of three cast members. However, what has star and executive producer Justin Hartley said about these transitions? Many fans were drawn to Tracker because of Hartley, especially following his successful six-year run on NBC’s This Is Us. […]
“[Teddi] is going to be there for a while. She is helping her mom get sorted. I was getting in the way you might say and it really wasn’t good,” Velma said at the beginning of season 2. “So I came back. Don’t you worry because I am keeping busy.”
The concerns about the show’s main characters kept coming when Graise was noticeably absent from six episodes. His cousin Randy was brought in to help Colter before Bobby returned, which caused backlash from viewers who grew used to seeing Graise on their screen.
News later broke that Graise and McEnany wouldn’t be coming back — at least for now.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not just people that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the answer.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2025. “The challenge is when you got to learn about them, which I thought was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is not having it fall into a formula.”
Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
“The only rule I really have of the show is each week Colter is going to come to a new place and there’s going to be a new case. How he gets those answers and what he uses on the team, that’s all something that’s up for grabs,” Reid teased. “Meeting these [local] weird characters is something we’re going to try to do more of as the season goes on. Just Colter coming in and interacting with other characters. That’s fun to see Justin flex those muscles with really good guest cast members.”
Ahead of season 3, Reid defended the decision to shake up season 3.
Justin Hartley’s Tracker has dealt with numerous surprise cast exits — so who is and isn’t returning for season 4? The hit CBS series, which premiered in February 2024, introduced fictional survivalist Colter (Hartley) as he travels the country to help solve various missing persons cases. The ensemble cast grew with characters such as handlers […]
“Justin has to carry so much of the show. So I don’t want the other characters that are in the show to just be phone-a-friend where whenever he’s in trouble, he just picks up the phone. The challenge in season 3 has been how do we build actual good story out of [it],” Reid teased.
Reid pointed out that Reenie and Randy are still in the picture.
“Reenie takes a lot of the guilt [from her season 2 case] on and she’s brought Randy up there to fix it. You get to see them in the office. That forms a good bond between those two. Then we’re going to bring in another character as she tries to expand her law office a little bit. That will be interesting,” he continued. “It’s just building out those story lines. The challenge we set up for ourselves this season was to build out those people’s world a little bit.”
Reid added: “It’s about trying to get a little bit of lightness [into the show] because sometimes Colter is doing some really dark and heavy stuff. It’s life or death.”
Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.