In the age before streaming, there was no better prize for new series than to premiere after the Super Bowl. Over the years, networks have used the powerful audience lead-in of the premier NFL event’s 100 million-plus viewers to provide sampling for a new series. Such hits as “The Wonder Years,” “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Family Guy” received their first exposure after the broadcast.
Lately, the post-Super Bowl stunt has been used less often. The TV networks that carry the event now try to maximize ratings and revenue by putting established hits in the time period rather than take a chance with a new show that may not break out in the long run (the list of those that didn’t is long). But CBS is seeing the approach pay off this year with “Tracker,” which has become the most-watched entertainment series on television for the 2023-24 season.
It’s the first freshman show to achieve that status since “Survivor” in 2000. The show stars Justin Hartley (“This Is Us”) as a “rewardist,” who travels around the country in a silver Airstream trailer to find missing people for reward money. The series was adapted from the Jeffery Deaver novel “The Never Game.
” CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said in a recent interview that “Tracker” was the first pilot she watched after taking over as programming chief at the network. She immediately pegged it for the time slot following the network’s telecast of the big game on Feb. 11.
A rec.
