Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large TV audiences tracked down “Tracker” in a big way this season. The freshman CBS drama, which stars Justin Hartley as a survivalist who helps law enforcement and others solve tough cases, was the 2023-24 TV season’s most-watched entertainment series.
According to the Eye network, that’s the first time a first-year TV series was ranked as the No. 1 show since “Survivor” premiered as an instant phenomenon in 2000 (and that was a summer show, so there’s an asterisk on that one). “Tracker” was helped, of course, by premiering in February behind Super Bowl LVIII — giving it a huge jump start.
And this was an unusual, truncated TV season due to the Hollywood strikes, which meant limited episodic orders for most programs.
Last year’s top-rated show, Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone,” hasn’t aired an original episode in more than a year — and yet still made the charts, but via repeats that aired this season on CBS.
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