New Justin Hartley show 'Tracker' sees 'This is Us' star turn dashing, complex action hero

Even playing Kevin Pearson on the tearjerker drama "This Is Us," Justin Hartley showed a cool head in a crisis.

Hartley, 47, recalls attending a party shortly after the celebrated 2016-22 NBC series aired its infamous 2018 house-burning episode, titled "Super Bowl Sunday," and seeing an oblivious party guest's faux fur coat catch fire from a candle.

"I thought, 'This isn't going to go well' and reacted like a cat. I ripped (the coat) off, threw it on the ground and started stomping on it," Hartley recalls, adding the reaction was oddly ambiguous. "I don't know if she was thankful, or thought I was just stepping on her jacket."

These lifesaving skills will be demanded weekly – and pay much bigger dividends – on the actor's new CBS action drama "Tracker," which kicks off Sunday after Super Bowl LVIII (approximately 10:30 EST/7:30 PST). Hartley stars as strapping survivalist Colter Shaw, who roams the country helping police solve crimes and find missing people – while collecting the posted reward.

Our critic's take: Review: Justin Hartley makes a handsome network heartthrob in 'Tracker'

Hartley, along with good friend and "This Is Us" director Ken Olin, had searched for years for the right project to follow that highly successful drama. When Olin shared Jeffrey Deaver's bestselling 2019 novel "The Never Game," featuring "reward seeker" Colter Shaw, the journey began.

"I read it in a flash and it was instant love," says Hartley from Vancouver, where "Tracker" is filmed.

Hartley and Olin, who are executive producers, shepherded the series through the pandemic, the final season of "This Is Us" in 2022 and the Hollywood 2023 strikes. (The series was originally planned for last season.) In November, "Tracker" finally started shooting and was fast-tracked to premiere in the coveted post-Super Bowl slot, before settling into its regular Sunday at 9 EST/PST slot on Feb. 18.

"All these years later, here we are gearing up for a Super Bowl debut. It's pretty surreal," says Hartley. "They're giving us prime real estate. Hopefully, people hop right in and continue the action."

Hartley is primed for the beefy action showcase that features Colter traveling to a new location each week, towing his Airstream trailer and pulling off death-defying rescues. "I didn't do any exercise on 'This Is Us' except for getting ready for scenes where Kevin takes his shirt off. And the closest thing to spraining anything was a tear duct," says Hartley. "This is definitely a different animal."

Just to be clear, we will see Hartley shirtless – often – in "Tracker," as is evident in CBS' ubiquitous promos. Hartley insists it's just one of the byproducts of setting the action around Colter's Airstream.

"It's his home. He sleeps there, showers there, eats there," he says. "If he's getting out of bed, you'll see it. We don't script shirtless stuff in."

What is scripted is a complicated antihero who endured a traumatic survivalist childhood, revealed in flashbacks in the series premiere.

Olin's excited to show a new set of Hartley skills after the "This Is Us" role.

"Justin's an incredibly talented actor who people underestimate, frankly, because he's so handsome. He walks into the room and it's clear, he's not like the rest of us," he says. "Colter is also described as very good-looking in the book. In reality, he's complicated, troubled, and intelligent, with a darker backstory than what he presents physically. There's a lot here for Justin."

And there's a lot of Justin in the series, which features a virtual support crew for Colter that includes dog-loving Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany) and her partner Teddi Bruin (Robin Weigert) as the private investigator's handlers, and Bob Exley (Eric Graise) as the emergency tech expert.

That means "Tracker" requires a lot of the actor in almost every scene. Hartley jumps between Vancouver and his Los Angeles home with his actress wife Sofia Pernas, who married months after Hartley's high-profile divorce from Chrishell Stause was finalized in 2021. Three years later, Hartley gives credit to Pernas for helping deal with the demands of starring in and producing a weekly TV drama.

"We do everything together, which is very cool," Hartley says. "When you're healthy in your personal life, everything else just slows down and becomes even more wonderful."

Hartley and Pernas jetted to Los Angeles for a whirlwind 24-hour trip to the Golden Globes in January, where the couple had the Internet buzzing with their red carpet PDA. Hartley, a presenter at the awards, went even more viral when he was mixed up online with "Top Gun: Maverick" star Glen Powell.

"I saw Glen that night and I was like, 'I don't really get it.' And he said, 'I don't get it either,'" says Hartley. "We laughed about it."

Then it was right back to work in Vancouver. There's pressure, but Hartley, like Colter, is keeping calm and not letting panic take the wheel.

"If I'm not on set, I'm promoting the show. There are lines to memorize. And if I'm not doing any of those, then I'm trying to get a little bit of sleep," he says. "But it's OK, this is a labor of love. This is what you dream about."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justin Hartley stars in 'Tracker,' CBS show airing after Super Bowl