Jason Ritter Pitches Himself as Justin Hartley’s Damsel in Distress on Tracker

Jason Ritter has a very specific way he wants to pop up on CBS's Tracker: let Justin Hartley rescue him. Yes, he is fully volunteering to be the guy who gets nabbed so Hartley can do the hero thing.

The pitch (and the self roast)

Ritter, 46, told Us Weekly he is still gunning for a Tracker appearance and would happily play the rescued party. He also floated a crossover idea with his current show Matlock, where he plays attorney Julian. In his version, Julian would bail on the firm, learn the ropes from Hartley's Colter Shaw, and help track down people for a living.

"If I was on Tracker, I'd be like, 'All right, I got these guys ... Oh, one of them snuck up behind me and that's the end for me. Save me, please. I've made this mission 20 times harder by being captured.'"

He even signed off with a cheerful "Anytime, Justin."

Quick refresher on the shows

• Matlock (premiered September 2024): Kathy Bates plays Madeline Kingston, a well-off retired lawyer who reinvents herself as modest "Matty Matlock" to snag a job at the powerhouse firm Jacobson Moore. Ritter co-stars as Julian, one of the firm attorneys.
• Tracker: Justin Hartley is Colter Shaw, a loner who hunts for missing people and collects reward money. Each case is a new town, a new threat, and at least one scene where he looks like a catalog model while scaling something dangerous.

This has been brewing

Ritter has been joking about teaming up with Hartley for a while. Back in August 2025, he tossed out the idea that if Colter ever wanted a partner, Julian could ditch the firm and ride off into a new life with him. His exact vibe: two rugged guys on the road.

Enter Skye P. Marshall, agent of chaos (and truth)

Ritter's Matlock costar Skye P. Marshall loved the crossover idea but did not let Ritter skate by on the "rugged" part. In September 2025, she said he shows up to set and tries to squint like James Dean, throws a foot up on a chair, the whole thing, and it makes her beg him to stop. Her casting advice for Tracker: let Jason be the guy who gets kidnapped and, please, do not hand him a gun.

Ritter agrees, obviously

He is completely in on the joke. Recently, he doubled down that he is excellent at playing someone who needs saving and would probably make Colter's job harder by getting grabbed mid-mission. Which, frankly, would be pretty funny television and exactly the kind of TV-world crossover nonsense I would watch immediately.

Where to watch

Tracker airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.