Without a Trace
Without a Trace is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002, to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of a Missing Persons Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in New York City. It starred Anthony LaPaglia, Poppy Montgomery, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Enrique Murciano and Eric Close with Roselyn Sánchez joining the cast in season 4.
For other uses, see Without a Trace (disambiguation).Without a Trace
- Peter Manning Robinson
- Richard Marvin
- Reinhold Heil
- Johnny Klimek
United States
English
7
160 (list of episodes)
- Hank Steinberg
- Jerry Bruckheimer
- Jonathan Littman
- Ed Redlich
- Jan Nash
- Greg Walker
- Greg Walker
- Jan Nash
- Gwendolyn M. Parker
- Scott White
- Diego Gutierrez
- Nancy van Doornewaard
- Allison Abner
- David H. Goodman
- Byron Balasco
New York City, New York, U.S.
43 minutes
- Jerry Bruckheimer Television
- CBS Productions
(2002–06)
(seasons 1–4) - CBS Paramount Network Television
(2006–09)
(seasons 5–7) - Warner Bros. Television
September 26, 2002 –
May 19, 2009
At the time of its original broadcast, Without a Trace was one of CBS' most successful series, earning high television ratings and winning a Primetime Emmy Award. On May 19, 2009, CBS announced the cancellation of the series after seven seasons.[1]
Premise[edit]
Each episode followed the search for one individual under tight time constraints. The stories also focused on the personal lives of the team members and illustrated how their experiences gave them insight into cases. The team consisted of Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia), Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close), and Elena Delgado (Roselyn Sánchez), the last of whom joined the cast in the fourth season.
The real FBI does investigate missing persons; specifically, they have the authority to help in any "mysterious" disappearances of children abducted by nonfamily members. The groups that investigate these crimes are called Child Abduction Rapid Deployment teams.[2] They get involved in other missing persons cases as needed but do not have a dedicated unit. One element that set the series apart from other TV police dramas was the display of information about real-life missing persons at the end of most episodes. This resulted in a kidnapped brother and sister being found on July 25, 2005.[3] At least five people have been found as a result of those announcements.[4] Occasionally, such information was replaced with other public-service announcements, such as an episode about an attempted suicide that presented information on a suicide help line. Showings outside the United States tend to omit missing persons information; however, Australia's Nine Network usually showed Australian cases, and in Hong Kong, the TVB Pearl showed information about local missing persons during the first two seasons. Without a Trace took place within Jerry Bruckheimer's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation universe. A crossover episode in 2007 featured characters Gil Grissom (William Petersen) from CSI and Jack Malone from Without a Trace working together to solve the same case.
Syndication[edit]
From 2005 to 2009, after a long run of weekday back-to-back episodes on TNT, Without a Trace reruns were moved to a graveyard slot in early morning, then removed totally from TNT's lineup. From 2009 to 2014, the series aired on Ion Television. From 2010 to 2012, the series aired on MyNetworkTV.
In August 2020, Paramount Network began airing reruns of the show on August 14, 2020, making a return of the series in syndication for the first time since TNT removed it from its lineup in 2009.
In May 2023, Without a Trace was removed from the new Max streaming service that used to be HBO Max.
Since 2023, reruns of Without a Trace aired on "Charge!".