Should we embark on Tracker (on TF1), the most watched series in America?

Justin Hartley, from This Is Us, is the star of this new “Processral”, which arrives this evening in France.

Have you never heard of a tracker?

And yet, it is the series of investigation which is currently a hit on the other side of the Atlantic. The Tracker phenomenon arrives on TF1 tonight. But what is it? And what is it worth?

Adaptation of a literary saga

The series is developed by the novelist Ben H. Winters-hitherto rather specialized in Mystery SF-and is built as a series of action, adapting the literary saga Colter Shaw written by Jeffery Deaver and started by The Never Game (2019). It has 5 pounds to date. In this television adaptation, we therefore follow the famous Colter, a lonely survivalist who puts his tracker talents in the police and individuals. He gets paid for the promised award. Tracker is a pure procedural. Each episode is based on a different investigation, with its twists and turns.

A guilty and assumed pleasure

In the genre, Tracker does not invent the wheel. She would even be a little pretending on the edges question staged. We are really in a good old procedural a little dated around an investigator in Skills (Mentalist and Castle way). A perfectly calibrated program for old-fashioned linear television (the CBS channel in the United States) and therefore for the Wednesday evening box of TF1. That said, you can get caught up in its mixture of police road movie, high-tech gadgets and survival skills. This brings its original touch to the intrinsically redundant concept. As an American critic summed up: “It is a beer-pizza series, sometimes outrageous, but devilishly fun”.

Justin Hartley, a master card

Everything is based on him. The ex-star of This Is Us gives Colter Shaw a mixture of charm, endurance and vulnerability that is enough to wear the series. Without Justin Hartley, the poor tracker would certainly not stand out. The 1.90m giant imposes its presence in each confrontation, sometimes recalling Alan Ritchson in Jack Reacher (less violence).

An American cardboard

CBS very quickly saw the potential of a series as a tracker. The channel programmed the first episode in February 2024, just after the Super Bowl. A crucial box, since it automatically generates a massive audience (100 million Americans watch the final of American football each year and a game remains naturally connected to the channel after the match). Tracker has had the honors of the Super Bowl and since then, she has been giving up on the vague of success. In the United States, it is now the Drama n ° 1. At the top of the average audiences of the 2024-2025 season, the series brought together an average of 10.84 million viewers (Source Nielsen), in front of the NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy or FBI.

Already an episodes to catch up

If you are embarking on Tracker, tonight, on TF1, you will be delighted to learn that there is something to see: season 1 has 13 episodes, and season 2, broadcast last year in the USA, totals 20 episodes. The series is already renewed and Tracker will return on October 19, 2025 across the Atlantic with its season 3.