Tracker fans still coming to terms with Justin Hartley‘s show facing multiple cast exits will be excited to see one of the former stars in Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
During season 3 of Ryan Murphy‘s anthology series, which premiered on Friday, October 3, Ed Gein (Charlie Hunnam) dates Adeline Watkins (Suzanna Son) despite his mother Enid Watkins (Robin Weigert) disapproving of their relationship. Later in the show, Enid recalls throwing herself down the stairs multiple times while pregnant because she didn’t want to give birth to Adeline.
CBS viewers might have recognized Weigert for her role as Teddi. The network found success with Tracker immediately after it premiered in February 2024 to record-breaking ratings. Viewers have since tuned in week after week to see fictional survivalist Colter (Hartley) travel the country to help solve various missing persons cases.
As Colter has gotten help, the ensemble cast has grown with characters such as handlers Teddi (Weigert) and Velma (Abby McEnany), hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).
After joining Tracker in season 1, Weigert’s character was written off in the premiere with her wife, Velma, admitting that they needed some distance. Velma then started working with Reenie and Teddi wasn’t discussed again in season 2.
“[Teddi] is going to be there for a while. She is helping her mom get sorted. I was getting in the way you might say and it really wasn’t good,” Velma said at the beginning of season 2. “So I came back. Don’t you worry because I am keeping busy.”
The concerns about the show’s main characters kept coming when Graise 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.
Before season 3, news broke that Graise and McEnany wouldn’t be coming back — at least for now.
“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,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly in May. “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.”
Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
“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.”
Monster is currently streaming on Netflix. Tracker returns to CBS on Sunday, October 19, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.
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