Eric Graise‘s lengthy Tracker absence caused a surprising amount of backlash — but was the show’s creative team shocked by how much Bobby was missed?
Ahead of the season 2 finale on Sunday, May 11, executive producer Elwood Reid weighed in on Bobby being gone for a handful of episodes, exclusively telling Us Weekly, “It’s one of those things where actor availability is always an issue. There have been shows where people don’t even notice [if a character is missing].”
Reid, 58, pointed out that Tracker doesn’t operate like most shows with an ensemble cast.
“You don’t [always] see Reenie. He talks to Velma for two seconds. He may talk to Bobby for one phone call. The show works because you are over Justin [Hartley]‘s shoulder,” Reid explained. “One of the challenges in season 3 is going to be reconfiguring the team and figuring out what that team looks like.”
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According to Reid, a priority for the show is making sure Tracker doesn’t “fall into complacency.”
“I don’t want the show to be ‘phone a friend’ every week,” Reid added.“I think that gets old and Justin is always challenging me on that. He’s like, ‘Do we need to do this? Do I need to call Bobby all the time? Can I do this?'”
Tracker follows survivalist Colter (Hartley) as he travels the country to help find missing people, track down information on criminal cases and more. Every episode shows Colter getting help from his team — handler Teddi (Robin Weigert), hacker Bobby and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).
Earlier this season, Graise, 35, was noticeably absent from six episodes. His cousin Randy (Chris Lee) was brought in to help Colter before Bobby returned, which caused backlash from viewers who grew used to seeing Graise on their screen.
“Randy came in and also gave something to the show that was different. There was a real warmth and fun when he came in. It was something that I think we were missing a little bit too in some episodes. He just was immediately fun when he came in,” Reid noted. “With those dynamics — and in playing with this team dynamics — that’s all stuff we’re going to continue to play with in season 3 as the show evolves.”
Reid continued: “We’re going to bring back some characters from seasons 1 and 2 — we’re going to see them more and more. There’s been some fun characters that I think are fun to see in Colter’s world [season to season].”
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Despite the potential changes, Reid clarified it wouldn’t be a “revolving door” of team members.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
Season 3 is not yet in production, but there’s already some ideas being thrown around. The good news? Tracker has “no rules,” and that has allowed it to grow every time viewers check back in on Colter.
“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.”
