Justin Hartley’s Tracker lands $48 million California tax credit
justin hartley’s Tracker is moving its fourth season from Canada to Los Angeles and will receive a $48 million California tax credit. The CBS drama, produced by Disney’s 20th Television, is set to start shooting in the summer with a bigger California footprint than its first three seasons.
Los Angeles Gets 176 Days
The production will film for 176 days in California, using 250 crew members and 275 actors. The California Film Commission said the credit is the largest TV show tax credit awarded by the state, and it is based on projected spending of more than $129 million.
That scale matters because the show is not a small relocation. Tracker premiered in 2024, and by late April its third season was the fourth most-watched program on linear TV according to Nielsen, so the move pulls a high-performing series into a system designed to keep major TV work inside the state.
Vancouver Made the First Three
Elwood Reid said the crew and people of Vancouver made the first three seasons possible. He also said, “Location is a huge part of the storytelling on Tracker,” which is why the shift to Los Angeles fits the show’s format as it heads into a new production cycle.
Reid added, “We’re so grateful to the crew and people of Vancouver who made the first three seasons of this hit drama possible, and are simultaneously thrilled to be able to kick off the fourth season of Tracker by filming in Los Angeles, thanks to the tax incentive program that supports bringing production back to California.” The show is primarily set in the wilderness, which makes it eligible for an extra 5% tax credit bonus on qualified expenditures incurred outside the designated 30-mile zone of Greater Los Angeles.
California’s Bigger Bid
The relocation lands inside California’s expanded $750 million incentive program, which has already backed more than 100 productions since last year. Against competition from countries such as Ireland, the U.K. and Canada, the state is using a larger credit to pull work back into Los Angeles rather than watch another well-watched series stay abroad.
Adam Schiff has argued for a federal answer, saying, “State programs cannot simply substitute for the kind of global, federal and competitive tax incentives that are needed to bring production back to American soil and stop its offshoring.” For Tracker, though, the immediate answer is simpler: the next season starts in Los Angeles, and California is paying up to keep it there.
