What happened to Bobby on Tracker? The show's explanation doesn't hold up
Bobby Exley — Colter Shaw's tech guy, played by Eric Graise — was a fan favourite from the jump on CBS's Tracker. Then, midway through season 2, he simply stopped showing up.
His cousin Randy started answering the phone instead. No real explanation. No goodbye scene.
If you found that odd, you weren't the only one.
What the show said
Bobby's absence got three different explanations across two seasons — which is part of the problem:
- Season 2, episode 10 — Randy tells Colter that Bobby is dealing with "family stuff" and has asked Randy to fill in.
- Season 2, episode 15 — Colter asks again; this time Randy says Bobby has been attending a friend's funeral.
- Season 3 premiere — Randy informs Reenie that Bobby quit his job at the repair shop entirely and is now an encryption specialist at a startup.
The stories didn't quite line up, and fans noticed.
"Between the stock options and the salary, he's bringing home the bacon," Randy said.
Clean exit. New job. Door left open.
What was actually going on
The behind-the-scenes picture tells a different story. In May 2024, Deadline reported that CBS had reduced the minimum guaranteed episodes for series regulars on several of its shows — including FBI and FBI: Most Wanted — as a cost-cutting measure. ABC had done similar things with Grey's Anatomy. Tracker appears to have followed suit.
Showrunner Elwood Reid confirmed to TVLine that the decision to write out Bobby and Velma was about consolidation, not character arcs.
"We wanted to consolidate and build out Reenie's office a bit more," Reid told TVLine. "That doesn't mean these people can't come back."
The goal was to have Randy — who'd tested well with audiences — absorb Bobby's function in a more streamlined setup. Reid was clear that neither Bobby nor Velma had been "replaced," but the practical effect was the same.
Does the in-show version hold up?
Not especially. A character who spent all of season 1 as Colter's indispensable right hand — jailbreaking phones, hacking servers, running searches in real time — doesn't just leave for a startup between seasons without it feeling abrupt. The shifting explanations in season 2, where Bobby's absence was papered over with vague references to family issues, made it worse. It had the look of a show buying time while the production side worked out the details.
Reid has said the door remains open for Bobby to return. Whether Graise actually comes back is a different question.