CBS’ Tracker Debuts to 18.4 Million Viewers Leading Out of Record-Setting Super Bowl

CBS’ Tracker scored a ratings touchdown (or at least a field goal) on Sunday with the procedural’s post-Super Bowl debut snagging 18.4 million viewers, TVLine has learned. And that’s just the linear audience; the total number of viewers will grow once streaming is factored in, which CBS expecting it to reach 25 million.

Based on Jeffery Deaver’s The Never Game, the series stars stars Justin Hartley as tracker-for-hire Colter Shaw. TVLine readers gave Tracker‘s premiere an average grade of “B+,” with 94% saying they plan to check back in for Episode 2. (Click here to read our post mortem interview with Hartley, in which he tackles the premiere’s biggest twists.)

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This puts Tracker ahead of last year’s post-Super Bowl show, Fox’s premiere of Next Level Chef Season 2, which netted just 15.7 million viewers. Tracker also outperformed Fox’s 24: Legacy (2017) with 17.6 million.

Until those final numbers come in, however, Tracker lags behind several major post-Super Bowl airings. Here’s a complete breakdown of ratings in recent years:
* Next Level Chef (Fox, 2023) with 15.7 million viewers
* Winter Olympics (NBC, 2022) with 24 million viewers
* The Equalizer (CBS, 2021) with 20.4 million viewers
* The Masked Singer (Fox, 2020) with 27.3 million viewers
* The World’s Best (CBS, 2019) with 22.2 million viewers
* This Is Us (NBC, 2018) with 27 million viewers
* 24: Legacy (Fox, 2017) with 17.6 million viewers
* The Late Show (CBS, 2016) with 20.6 million viewers
* The Blacklist (NBC, 2015) with 25.7 million viewers

It should be noted that Tracker nearly tied Alias (2003) and Elementary (2013) for the latest start time ever for a Super Bowl lead-out, getting underway just before 11:15 pm ET.

According to CBS, this year’s Super Bowl averaged 123.4 million viewers, up 7% from last year’s broadcast.

Shows That Aired After the Super Bowl: 10 Touchdowns, 5 Fumbles, 1 Field Goal

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