With a show like Tracker, it’s easy to focus more on the individual cases that Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) works with and the people he saves rather than the money he ends up making. But for those in the audience who are curious if it actually pays to be a rewardist, well, it just might if your name is Colter Shaw. For those wondering just how much cash Colter raked in throughout Season 2, it’s a hefty number. It turns out that it really does pay to collect rewards, especially the more you put yourself in harm’s way. Here’s what we know about Colter’s reward situation throughout Season 2.
Colter Shaw Makes Some Big Bucks on ‘Tracker’
In the first season of Tracker, there were just as many episodes with an unknown dollar value attached to Colter’s jobs as there were spoken reward figures. In the pilot episode, “Klamath Falls,” Colter received $20,000 for his help, a figure he’d see again in “St. Louis.” In “Missoula,” he made $35,000 to recover a boy who wandered into a Montana cult, and he got $10,000 for a job in Camden, Maine. And that’s not to mention the $250,000 job that he and Billie Matalon (Sofia Pernas) tackled together in “Lexington,” though because the FBI froze those accounts, they never saw a dime. There are also six episodes that season where the reward fee is undisclosed. These baseline prices give us an idea of Colter’s standard working fee, though he takes lower-paying jobs as well, notably in Season 1’s “Springland,” where he’s paid only $5,000 to uncover what happened to a van lifer and her missing wheels. While Colter obviously does what he does to make a living, he also does it because he wants to help people. But all of those figures were from Season 1… What about Season 2?
In Season 2, nearly every episode featured a hefty reward. The 20-episode season (an improvement from Season 1’s 13 episodes) kicked off with “Out of the Past,” which earned Colter $35,000, followed closely by another $20,000 in “Ontological Shock” and $25,000 (split from a larger $50,000 earned with Billie) in “Bloodlines.” From there, our favorite rewardist collected a range of different bounties, from $50,000 in “Noble Rot” and $5,000 in “Preternatural” to $25,000 in “Trust Fall” and $15,000 in “The Night Movers.” In the second half of the season, he made $50,000 in both “Nightingale” and “Shades of Gray,” $10,000 in “Monster,” $20,000 in “Neptune,” $10,000 in “Exodus,” and $15,000 in “Collision.” While Season 1 contained six episodes with an unknown reward fee, Season 2 only had three, “The Grey Goose,” “The Mercy Seat,” and “Rules of the Game,” the latter of which we can expect to be a particularly large figure considering Colter was working for Leo Sharf (Pej Vahdat) at the time. Oh, and he charges $187 to find a boy’s missing dog in “Man’s Best Friend.”
Excluding the episodes with an unknown fee, Colter Shaw raked in $330,187 in Season 2 alone. This is on top of the $70,000 we know for sure he made in Season 1, and (again) not including those episodes where we don’t know exactly what he was paid. It’s also worth noting that sometimes Colter doesn’t collect the fee he charges. In the case of “Man’s Best Friend,” for instance, Colter makes a deal with young Aiden Weston (Aiden Stoxx). He ultimately lets the boy keep his $187, which he plans to use to do something special for his mom. Likewise, in “Exodus,” the death of a local priest, the brother of Sherry Chaval (Wonser De-Gbon), is killed while protecting a young boy. Inspired by his sacrifice, Colter insists that the reward money ($10,000) be donated back to Father Chaval’s church instead. Thus, Colter’s Season 2 total goes down to around $320,000, not including the jobs we don’t have monetary value for. Combined with Season 1, that total jumps to about approximately $390,000.
Not Every ‘Tracker’ Episode Ends With Colter Getting Paid
Of course, not every Tracker episode ends with Colter collecting a fee either. As early as Season 1’s “Chicago,” Colter is known to do favors for friends like Bobby Exley (Eric Graise). Even though Bobby tried to pay Colter, the rewardist insisted that the two of them were even. Likewise, in “Mt. Shasta,” Colter slashes his unknown rates for Reenie Greene’s (Fiona Rene) friend, though in this instance he still collects an unknown (albeit discounted) sum. In Season 2, Colter continues his tradition of doing occasional favors for friends and family, taking no fee in episodes like “The Disciple,” where he takes down the Teacher (Nicholas Lea), “Memories,” where he did a job in Reno pro bono for Randy (Chris Lee), and “Echo Ridge,” where he revisits his hometown to help an old friend, ultimately busting up a child trafficking ring.
While we don’t know exactly what Colter charges as his “standard rate,” one can assume that it’s likely somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000, given the standard price points of most of his jobs. With that in mind (and assuming Colter takes on other jobs in between episodes that we don’t know anything about), he can easily afford to do a few for free. It certainly pays to be Colter Shaw’s friend, especially if you know someone who has gone missing. Sure, Colter does the reward-collecting thing professionally. It’s how he pays for his gas, his repairs, his supplies, and keeps his team on retainer (more on that in a minute). But deep down, he just wants to help people and keep others from experiencing the same losses that he has himself. We see that clearly every time he refuses to be paid, lending a helping hand just because it’s the right thing to do.
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The series was renewed back in February.
Colter Has to Split His Earnings in Most ‘Tracker’ Episodes
Of course, that $320,000 from Season 2 (again, not including the other fees we know nothing about) doesn’t go to Colter alone. The long-wolf survivalist has to split his earnings with his crew as well. It’s safe to say that Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma Bruin (Abby McEnany) take a cut off the top for being the ones to find Colter these jobs. Early on in the series, they also provided much of the research that Colter needed for every case. But that’s not all. Any time Colter uses Bobby, Randy, or Reenie’s services (tech or legal), they’re earning their keep as well. It seems that the most obvious way to handle this would be to give the Bruins a cut of every job, while keeping both Reenie and Bobby (and, by extension, Randy) on retainer for their services, since they seem able and willing to drop everything to help Colter at a moment’s notice.
So, how much do Colter’s friends make off his earnings? It’s impossible to say. Keeping a lawyer on retainer could cost anywhere from $500 to $10,000, depending on the extent of their services or the hourly rates involved. If a lawyer estimates that 10 hours of work would cost about $2,500, you can see how those numbers could add up. This is all conjecture, of course, as we have no idea what Reenie charges — we only know it can’t be cheap. Likewise, Bobby’s profession is so niche that it’s difficult to determine that. But we know Colter Shaw is a stand-up guy and there’s no doubt he’s making sure the people he cares for are taken care of.
Tracker is available for streaming on Paramount+.
- Release Date
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February 11, 2024
- Network
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CBS
- Showrunner
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Elwood Reid
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Justin Hartley
Colter Shaw
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