‘Tracker’ Officially Steals TV Crown From Taylor Sheridan

1 week ago 19

Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) in the 'Tracker' episode

Published Oct 16, 2026, 9:46 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Losing Taylor Sheridan to Universal certainly seemed like a blow for Paramount; if it was, the effects haven't been felt just yet. This week, as many as five shows that Sheridan has a hand in are charting on Paramount's global top-10 chart. Not only is Sheridan still the studio's MVP, but his dominion seems to be getting larger by the month. This week, he delivered the fourth season of his crime-comedy series Tulsa King, which arrives only a few weeks after the third season of his spy thriller Lioness. Earlier this year, Sheridan's magnum opus, the Yellowstone franchise, expanded with two new shows in which he wasn't directly involved. Both shows emerged as hits, and one of them has already returned for a second season.

As expected, the show in question debuted as the most-watched scripted television series in the United States last week. According to the Nielsen report, it drew more than 8 million viewers upon its return. However, the show has now been overtaken by a close rival. Unlike past Yellowstone installments, including this year's Dutton Ranch, the show airs on CBS and marks a stylistic departure for the neo-Western franchise. It stars Luke Grimes as the grieving Kayce Dutton, and is presented as an old-fashioned network TV procedural. This creative leap is perhaps what prompted the mediocre initial response, but the reception to Season 2 has been far better in comparison.

Here's the Hit CBS Show That Overtook the 'Yellowstone' Spin-Off

We're talking, of course, about Marshals. The show holds an overall 48% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, making it the worst-rated Yellowstone title of all time. However, in his review of Season 2, Collider's Michael John Petty praised the show for fully embracing its procedural tone. According to this week's Nielsen report, Marshals remained among the 10 most-watched television shows in the country with a little under 7 million viewers, but was narrowly outperformed by fellow CBS procedural Tracker. This is largely how things unfolded earlier this year as well; last week was an anomaly with Marshals edging past Tracker. Created by Spencer Hudnut, Marshals will conclude its 20-episode second season next year.