The *True Story* Behind Young & Restless’ Justin Hartley’s Big Return to TV
Young & Restless and This Is Us alum Justin Hartley is gearing up to star in CBS’ new action series Tracker. Want to learn more about the upcoming show, including whether Tracker is based on a true story? Keep reading to find out.
Tracker is CBS’ new action drama starring Hartley as Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who roams the country as a reward seeker. Shaw uses his expert skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve mysteries while dealing with his own fractured family. Robin Weigert, Abby McEnany, Eric Graise, Fiona Rene, and Mary McDonnell also star in the first season of the CBS show.
From November 2014 to September 2016, Hartley portrayed Adam Newman on Young and the Restless. He also played Kevin Pearson on NBC’s This Is Us for all six seasons until the Emmy-winning drama’s conclusion in May 2022.
Tracker marks Hartley’s first significant TV role since This Is Us ended two years ago. “It wasn’t necessarily an action show I was looking for, or a movie, comedy, theater, writing a book,” said Hartley, who is also an executive producer on the series, to Entertainment Weekly in February 2024. “It was whatever might maintain that feeling I had when I was on This Is Us. Where you’re just so proud of what you’re doing. It was about starting something that I thought from inception would be great.”
Hartley’s character can be described as a lone wolf, which is something the actor and EP wanted to hone in on. “The fact that Colter doesn’t have a girlfriend, I think that’s one of the things I wanted to sort of keep,” he emphasized to 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.”
As you’re watching Tracker, you might be curious whether Colter Shaw is based on an actual person in real life. Keep reading to learn more.
Is Tracker based on a true story?
Is Tracker based on a true story? The answer is no, Tracker is based on the bestselling crime novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, which is fiction.
The Never Game follows Colter Shaw, a reward-seeker who travels the country solving crimes and helping private citizens locate missing persons. When Shaw learns about the reward for a missing Silicon Valley college student, he takes the challenge, thrusting him into the “dark heart of Silicon Valley and the cutthroat billion-dollar video gaming industry–and then a second kidnapping happens…and this victim turns up dead,” according to the book’s synopsis. “The clues soon point to one video game, The Never Game, in which the player has to survive after being left abandoned. Is a madman bringing that game to life? If so, Shaw has to stop him before he strikes again…and before he figures out that Shaw is on his trail.”
