How 'This Is Us' Prepared Jon Huertas, Justin Hartley for 'Tracker' Reunion
Jon Huertas credits his former This Is Us coworkers — including Justin Hartley — for making his time on the Tracker set so easy.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Huertas, 54, opened up about directing an upcoming episode of Tracker, which Hartley, 47, stars in and executive produces.
“Because Justin and I had this history together, it was like we just fell in lockstep again from when I directed him on This Is Us [and] when we worked together in scenes as stepfather and stepson,” Huertas shared. “We fell into that rhythm so naturally that it was easy. It made it really easy.”
Huertas was thrilled to be reunited with Hartley and Tracker executive producer Ken Olin, who was previously a producer and director on This Is Us.
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“That’s what I love about working with people that I’ve worked with before and working with friends. In fact, Diana [Maria Riva], who worked with Justin in this episode, she and I have known each other for a long time,” Huertas noted. “So having a rapport with people really makes the process much easier and smoother. And because TV moves so fast, I like that. I like working with people that I know.”
After directing Hartley on This Is Us, Huertas was thrilled to get another opportunity, adding, “Justin has such a handle on his character [Colter Shaw] and I feel like the writer of the episode [Sharon Lee Watson], the showrunner Elwood [Reid] and Ken really in prep got me deep enough into the story so that Justin and I aligned when it came time to start filming.”
This Is Us fans remember Hartley and Huertas previously working together on the hit NBC series, which ran from 2016 to 2022. The show focused on siblings Kevin (Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) in addition to their parents, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore). Huertas, meanwhile, played Miguel a.k.a Jack’s best friend and Rebecca’s second husband.
Hartley and Olin were already planning on how to work with Huertas again before This Is Us came to an end.
“Once This Is Us was ending, Justin and Ken were already putting the show together and Ken was like, ‘Hey, would you be interested in directing on this show?’ He was a big fan of my directing on This Is Us, which was super nice to hear,” Huertas told Us. “So he said, ‘When the show gets going, will you come and direct?’ … And I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be more excited to work with Justin and Ken. They’re two of my favorite people [and] two of my favorite talents.”
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The Tracker episode that Huertas directed, which airs on Sunday, April 21, follows Colter (Hartley) as he tries to help a widower find his only daughter who disappeared three years ago and is presumed dead. The case takes an interesting turn when the search introduces Colter to the world of amateur ghost hunting and paranormal activity.
Fans won’t have to wait long for another reunion between Huertas and Hartley since CBS has already renewed Tracker for a second season.
“There have been some conversations about me coming back to direct for sure. Justin has talked to me about being in front of the camera on the show at some point. But we’ll see,” Huertas hinted to Us. “I’m going to be directing a lot this year so it’s all about figuring out if I can fit an acting gig in there. We’ll see about the in front of the camera thing but I’ll definitely be back to direct a few episodes this year.”
In addition to directing episodes of Hartley’s new show, Huertas also worked with Ventimiglia on his ABC series The Company You Keep.
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“I enjoyed working with every soul on This Is Us. I like working with people that I have a rapport with [and] that I have a relationship with because it makes it easier to do the work and I trust them creatively. I feel like they feel the same way,” Huertas explained. “Also everybody on this show is just so talented. So when you’re directing or when you are acting, you want to surround yourself with the most talented people.”
Huertas’ next collaboration with his This Is Us costars might be an appearance on the newly announced rewatch podcast from Moore, Brown and Chris Sullivan.
“They’ve asked all of us to definitely come back and be on the rewatch podcast ‘This Was Us’ so I’ll sit down with them at some point,” Huertas told Us before joking, “[We can] talk about how much the people hated Miguel at the beginning and hopefully how much they loved him at the end.”
Tracker airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
