Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week Their Life. Hey guys,
Speaker 1: welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for clicking or downloading on today's episode with Chief Reese Dua,
Speaker 1: the man in charge of the Hunted Control Room Hunted,
Speaker 1: which is back of course on Network ten this week.
Speaker 1: It has actually already started and you can catch up
Speaker 1: on on ten play right now if you missed the
Speaker 1: first few launch episodes. My guest today is the new
Speaker 1: chief at the Helm, with over twenty years of experience
Speaker 1: in the Australian Defense Force and having been awarded the
Speaker 1: Order of Australia for service to the Special Operations community.
Speaker 1: He has really owned his stripes and is up to
Speaker 1: the task on capturing this season's contestants. I mean contestants,
Speaker 1: I mean criminals. You know, let's lean into that. I
Speaker 1: will ask about his promotion and what he thinks he
Speaker 1: brings to the top job that maybe sets him apart
Speaker 1: from his predecessor. I will explore the nature of the
Speaker 1: contestants this year and if he's worried that they will
Speaker 1: have picked up on too many ideas from season one
Speaker 1: and two. The HQ Chief will also share his thoughts
Speaker 1: on the new highest concept and how he's reacted to
Speaker 1: the show's evolution with Australian audiences. I will even ask
Speaker 1: him if he leans into the drama and if he
Speaker 1: acts up to the cameras, so if he treats this
Speaker 1: show the same way as he would if he was
Speaker 1: like actually chasing after criminals. There is so much to
Speaker 1: unpack with some fantastic secrets along the way on this
Speaker 1: show today. So sit back, guys and relax as we
Speaker 1: get to go behind the scenes of Hunted season three.
Speaker 1: I know I'm doing really well, but I think that's
Speaker 1: hilarious because I've been sitting here nervously all morning thinking
Speaker 1: do I call you rees? Do I call you missed?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: How do you want me to refer to you with
Speaker 1: your title for what it is you are on the show?
Speaker 2: I do prefer res I am Chief on the show.
Speaker 1: That well, great to chat to you about this new series.
Speaker 1: It's great to see it back for its third season,
Speaker 1: which is very exciting for Australian viewers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It's really great to be back, actually,
Speaker 2: and I think it's got a really really interesting twist
Speaker 2: and something that makes it a little bit more believable
Speaker 2: as a monster. When we talk about hunting fugitive, what.
Speaker 1: Was your reaction to hearing about the concepts evolution and
Speaker 1: hearing about this whole heist concept.
Speaker 2: Look, the initial time I heard about Huntred, I thought
Speaker 2: it was an absolutely awesome concept. I really did. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the show has been played in the UK and the
Speaker 2: US and brought to Australia you know through my brother
Speaker 2: in arms Benny Owen. But I really love the concept
Speaker 2: and what they've done with it now in regards to
Speaker 2: season three and the bank heist, it's phenomenal. Actually taken
Speaker 2: it to the next level, makes it more believable, makes
Speaker 2: it realistic, and we really are hunting futuitives.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on these people that have signed
Speaker 1: up for season three? Do you think that they should
Speaker 1: have done their homework and watch series one and two? Like,
Speaker 1: what's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2: Look? I think they have this year look where we're
Speaker 2: tested and continue to be tested throughout the series. But
Speaker 2: once again, we have some new investigators brought into the
Speaker 2: team as well. With our lead investigator, Cec. We have
Speaker 2: our cyber expert and cyber lead in LP. We have
Speaker 2: young lukers and cyber analysts been brought on as well,
Speaker 2: and the usual team of aren't a headquarters personnel. We've
Speaker 2: definitely learned some new tricks, and that's what I'd expect
Speaker 2: from anyone that was going on and run. Hopefully they
Speaker 2: learn from their predecessors. But once again, that just makes
Speaker 2: us better at our job and it makes us think
Speaker 2: more laterally, and obviously we have to come up to
Speaker 2: get these guys in the back.
Speaker 1: You've been given a promotion this year, so congratulations. What
Speaker 1: do you do differently? What do you do differently? You
Speaker 1: know that's different to your predecesse.
Speaker 2: Then yeah, look, I'm probably just with my background and
Speaker 2: everything like that, I'm probably a little bit more aggressive
Speaker 2: and forward leaning when it comes to the apprehension or
Speaker 2: the hunting or fugitives. That's what I bring to it. However,
Speaker 2: in saying that, you know, once we do capture the
Speaker 2: future is we make it. You know, we have that
Speaker 2: human interaction again, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: they really aren't fugitives for the show, so for hunt
Speaker 2: that they are, and that's the way I've got to
Speaker 2: treat them. And it's about bringing in that mindset to
Speaker 2: be able to hunt and capture futuitive.
Speaker 1: And your resume, which I've got in front of me,
Speaker 1: is amazing. But in terms of your skill and what
Speaker 1: you bring to the show, what would you say is
Speaker 1: your most unique asset in terms of like what you
Speaker 1: bring to the table.
Speaker 2: Look, I'm a team player. I've worked with professional professionals
Speaker 2: throughout my career and one thing that I've always been
Speaker 2: mindful of and thankful, I'm not the smartest guy. You know,
Speaker 2: always say you're the smartest guy in the room, room
Speaker 2: and wrong. Run't So when working with the dynamic team
Speaker 2: like this that bring their own professional background, experience, and knowledge,
Speaker 2: you've got to learn to leverage on that. You may
Speaker 2: have a good idea, but someone's got a better idea
Speaker 2: than you. My job is to hit it through all
Speaker 2: those ideas, bring it all together, and then execute on
Speaker 2: what we need to. But once the decision is made
Speaker 2: by me, we get the job done.
Speaker 1: Do you play favorites with your crew? Like do you
Speaker 1: have people that you've got on your team this year
Speaker 1: that you think are doing better than say others?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How do they suck up to you? I guess being
Speaker 1: the chief?
Speaker 2: Well, not at all. They're all individually confident and professional
Speaker 2: in their own life. You know, we've got a dynamic
Speaker 2: team with cyber analysts, intelligence analysts, ground hunters, you know, psychology,
Speaker 2: criminal psychologists. I don't know their job, they don't know
Speaker 2: my job. We bring it all together and that's what
Speaker 2: makes this such a dynamic team.
Speaker 1: I was talking to my friend on how massive this
Speaker 1: show is, and she actually got a little bit of
Speaker 1: a sneak peek for Studio ten a few years back
Speaker 1: on how it all comes together, and she was like,
Speaker 1: so surprised at how professional and how real life fit
Speaker 1: is that there's not really that many television cutting corners
Speaker 1: to get the show going. But I was curious about
Speaker 1: the hours, like, is it a nine to five job
Speaker 1: for you? How many hours are you doing a day?
Speaker 1: And how many weeks are you required to be on
Speaker 1: this show?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Look, so we are funny enough. When we were
Speaker 2: doing the first season or season one, ifually thought we
Speaker 2: were hundred sixty is twenty four hours a day because
Speaker 2: that's what I'm used to in my previous life as
Speaker 2: a specials a special Ops soldier and officer, I was
Speaker 2: hunting terrorists twenty four seven. You didn't get a break,
Speaker 2: so I took that same mindset into the first season
Speaker 2: and then productions like no, no, no, no, we're not hunting.
Speaker 2: In twenty four seven, I went, oh, okay, so how
Speaker 2: long are we doing this for? And they see ten
Speaker 2: hours a day for twenty one days. So the way
Speaker 2: my mind works is I just turned around to take now,
Speaker 2: it's two hundred and ten hours, that's what we're hundred foursolutely, Well,
Speaker 2: what twenty one days? And I said that it's two
Speaker 2: hundred and ten hours. So that frames it's completely different,
Speaker 2: and it also shifts our mindset to what we actually
Speaker 2: have to do because it's quite a condensed time frame now,
Speaker 2: so the pressure is actually on from the day we start.
Speaker 1: Knowing that the show is a TV show. I guess
Speaker 1: I was curious about your mentality about it all, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, are you conscious of the cameras? Are you
Speaker 1: behaving any differently within that ten hours of filming, you know,
Speaker 1: compared to how you would be Let's just say if
Speaker 1: you were hunting real people, real criminals.
Speaker 2: Look, look, the short answer is no, I can't change
Speaker 2: you will make out or be something I'm not. So
Speaker 2: I don't need to see the cameras. We used to
Speaker 2: call it flicking the switch. Once you slick the switch,
Speaker 2: you're on. You're on the job and you've got to
Speaker 2: get the job done. It doesn't matter what's around you.
Speaker 2: You're there to do a job and hunt terrorists or
Speaker 2: hunt futitives, and that's what we do. So no, there
Speaker 2: is no there's no make believe in this. We treat
Speaker 2: this as really we possibly can. We have cyber professionals
Speaker 2: and intelligence prefessionals out there that are gaining that information
Speaker 2: for me to turn it into intelligence, and then I
Speaker 2: get my ground hunter to act on that intelligence and
Speaker 2: capture our futuives.
Speaker 1: If it was me and I was you, I'd find
Speaker 1: myself sort of knowing it's television, sir, sort of leaning
Speaker 1: into things. So I'd be doing my best Tommy Lee
Speaker 1: Jones from The Fugitive, and so I'd sort of be
Speaker 1: mimicking some of that behavior to make it more traumatic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, some people do that, right. The only thing
Speaker 2: I say is probably one thing I don't know in
Speaker 2: my past life, I wouldn't have celebrated the way I
Speaker 2: do one hunt. That's just the way it is. That's
Speaker 2: dynamic of it all. But as far as the actual
Speaker 2: hunt and that really isn't behind the information that we glean. So,
Speaker 2: just to put it in perspective, when we first get
Speaker 2: a photo that you see on the photo board in
Speaker 2: the actual show, that's all the information that we have,
Speaker 2: and then it's up to us to actually find that
Speaker 2: information out on all the fugitives. That's where we bring
Speaker 2: the side of the team in. That's where our intelligence
Speaker 2: anelyts come in, where you know, Doc Carla carp comes
Speaker 2: in and talks us about the mindset of the individuals
Speaker 2: that are actually on the run, and then that builds
Speaker 2: what we call a target pack for me and then
Speaker 2: fashionable intelligence, and then we go to work.
Speaker 1: Wow, I just it's so complex, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: such a such a big task to do. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like even the first time I was explained about
Speaker 1: this concept, I just was sort of blown out of
Speaker 1: the water. And how much of a commitment this whole
Speaker 1: experience is for both sides of this, you know. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting everyone's debating about who they're going for. Do
Speaker 1: you find that that conversation comes around to you a
Speaker 1: lot where people are saying to you, are you going
Speaker 1: for the hunters or the hunter? Like, you know, does
Speaker 1: that question circle back to you a lot, and more commonly,
Speaker 1: are people going for your team or are they going
Speaker 1: for the supposed criminals.
Speaker 2: Look, I think in seasons one and two it was
Speaker 2: a little bit of a debate on who you actually
Speaker 2: going for, Yeah, but I think season three has really
Speaker 2: separated that so because people are now saying that they
Speaker 2: have actually committed a con, they've robbed a bank. So
Speaker 2: now there's that clear delineation between whether you're on the
Speaker 2: fugitive side or you're on the hunter side.
Speaker 1: I think I'm on the hunter side. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: what does that say about?
Speaker 2: Now I'm on the hundred side. But what I love
Speaker 2: about the dynamic of the fuity is did he actually
Speaker 2: see the human pressure that they put on themselves part
Speaker 2: of the show, And that's the realism behind this. You know,
Speaker 2: everyone thinks they can get away with something, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, that human factor, that that
Speaker 2: mindset that they need, and the phusical and emotional pressure
Speaker 2: they put on themselves when they're actually on the run,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes to look up and that's when we
Speaker 2: did them.
Speaker 1: Last night. We saw some pretty fun twists with some
Speaker 1: of the cast really aligned to the jobs that they had.
Speaker 1: You know, it was interesting with one of the girls,
Speaker 1: deb she was able to reference her father who was
Speaker 1: a real criminal, Gary Good or Good I can't remember
Speaker 1: exactly how to pronounce you curtain, but I thought that
Speaker 1: was really genius in the way in which we see
Speaker 1: how this show comes together, because that's a really interesting
Speaker 1: person to cast on the show. Did you know anything
Speaker 1: about the real life Australian criminal Gary Good?
Speaker 2: Look? Initially, no, we didn't. And now I go back
Speaker 2: to that investigative piece. Is that, you know, once we
Speaker 2: get the name of an individual, then we dig into
Speaker 2: their past, you know, giving given the powers from the
Speaker 2: state that we have or we've replicated as part of
Speaker 2: the show. And I always make the mention that we
Speaker 2: have an umpire that's above us who is a former
Speaker 2: assistant police commissioner, and he made sure that we are
Speaker 2: bide by the walls. So everything that we have we
Speaker 2: do on the show is replicated a normal or a
Speaker 2: real live law enforcement a chase or hunt. We have
Speaker 2: to submit warrants and everything like that. So when we
Speaker 2: were going through Dead's background, that's when we uncovered that
Speaker 2: her dad was actually a safe cracker, and that was
Speaker 2: the first time so I really did put an interesting
Speaker 2: stin on it.
Speaker 1: Did she use any of her father's tactics? I mean
Speaker 1: he did go to jail but in the end, But
Speaker 1: did she then borrow some of the things that her
Speaker 1: father must have done? I mean that would have been fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, I think it's one of those things. And
Speaker 2: the funny thing about the human side of it is
Speaker 2: maybe she wanted to experience what that feeling, that anxiety,
Speaker 2: that pressure that maybe her father sel when he was
Speaker 2: actually doing live Johns himself, I know, you know my
Speaker 2: reactions to a live job and what we're doing now
Speaker 2: on the show, they are mimicked similar feelings and emotions,
Speaker 2: So you know, it's quite real for the people who
Speaker 2: are doing it. Whether you're a hunter or your futuitive,
Speaker 2: it's emotionally real.
Speaker 1: I love the idea of finding out that you've got
Speaker 1: the Joker or the penguin's daughter, you know, involved in
Speaker 1: this process.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if you're dealing with the Joker in
Speaker 2: the Penguin, that means I'm batman.
Speaker 1: Hey, you're fine with that. What I was going to
Speaker 1: talk to you about was the fact that you now
Speaker 1: have been through this process and you've seen these contestants
Speaker 1: applying and getting onto this show and saving a certain way.
Speaker 1: Do you have a sense from doing the show as
Speaker 1: to which state has better criminals?
Speaker 2: Well, actually that's a really good question. But I think
Speaker 2: the people that actually come on the show are quite
Speaker 2: ingenious in some ways. You know, they are thinking outside
Speaker 2: of the box, and that's what forces us to think
Speaker 2: outside of the box as well. And I think, to
Speaker 2: be honest, I think it's Australian nature, right, Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: one of those things where I think, you know, the
Speaker 2: criminal around the world and the criminal mindset. You know,
Speaker 2: we're a country of convicts, you know, if we wanted
Speaker 2: to go back that far, you know. So I think
Speaker 2: it is in our nature. It's it's Australian's nature to
Speaker 2: push the limits and push law enforcement. But unfortunately, sometimes
Speaker 2: law enforcement wins overall generally.
Speaker 1: All the time, maybe the criminal and all of us
Speaker 1: like maybe I mean, I'm just I'm thinking of my
Speaker 1: feet here, but I'm thinking whether or not people watch
Speaker 1: this show and think I could be a criminal, Like
Speaker 1: not that they show is inspiring people to be criminals,
Speaker 1: Like that's not the purpose, But I wonder whether or
Speaker 1: not it does make I think about it, well, I.
Speaker 2: Think you know, there's a lot of TV shows, you know,
Speaker 2: on movies that are out there. I'm sure that it
Speaker 2: does spark a little bit of intuitivenessing people to think
Speaker 2: that they can actually go and do something. But the
Speaker 2: reality is it's a lot harder when you're actually in
Speaker 2: the moment doing the crime. Like you know, you saw
Speaker 2: the emotion and the feeling of some of the fugitives
Speaker 2: when they are actually robbing the bank, you know, and
Speaker 2: then they get in the car and they're actually exhausted.
Speaker 2: You know, that's the emotional toll. So yeah, it's an
Speaker 2: interesting dynamic. I love being part of it.
Speaker 1: Actually, did you think that these people did a good
Speaker 1: job of robbing the bank though? Like, that's what I
Speaker 1: was watching last night. I was like, Okay, some of
Speaker 1: these people are doing a really good job, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: were you surprised, well they were able to achieve what
Speaker 1: they did?
Speaker 2: Well? Credit? Where credits you When you get a bunch
Speaker 2: of you know, amateur bank robbers trying to rob a
Speaker 2: bankming up with the plan and then executing on that.
Speaker 2: They did the best that they could with the tools
Speaker 2: that they had knowledge they had, So yeah, cut us
Speaker 2: to them, but it's not going to help them the
Speaker 2: long run, We're going.
Speaker 1: To catch it's good mentality. The game, I guess of
Speaker 1: Hunter has only really just begun for us. You know,
Speaker 1: as an audience, do you think that this year we
Speaker 1: will see the most skilled contestants? Like are you preparing
Speaker 1: yourself for the hardest battle yet? Or what is the
Speaker 1: what's your mentality to this at the moment? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Look, great question Again, then it's my mindset has to
Speaker 2: be different every time, so they are learning as well,
Speaker 2: and I think the contestants this year may give us
Speaker 2: a one for our money. That doesn't mean they're going
Speaker 2: to get to the end of the line because I'm
Speaker 2: going to do everything in my power to make sure
Speaker 2: that they do not get to the extraction point. But
Speaker 2: I definitely think, yeah, they've bought their ow game.
Speaker 1: Did you think this is not a spoiler? Ether because
Speaker 1: I don't want you to say any names, but when
Speaker 1: you started out and you put these people's faces and
Speaker 1: names up on the board, do you predict who was
Speaker 1: going to be good and who was going to be
Speaker 1: bad at this game? Did you have a feeling just
Speaker 1: from being able to see the stats right at the
Speaker 1: start who is going to be a better criminal.
Speaker 2: Look not right at the start. That's one of the
Speaker 2: realism of what is so realistic about this is, you know,
Speaker 2: we literally do get a picture and name and where
Speaker 2: the person is from what state. What happens then is
Speaker 2: obviously we use our cyber analysts and our intelligence personnel
Speaker 2: to do with those backstories and those networks that they have,
Speaker 2: and then that's when we actually start getting a bit
Speaker 2: of an impression on who these sugities are, what their
Speaker 2: skill sets are, what their backgrounds are, and then I
Speaker 2: can actually narrow it down and say, right, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: suturey pair AE may give us a bit of a
Speaker 2: run for their money because of their background. So an
Speaker 2: example of that is if I see or we hear
Speaker 2: of any law enforcement personnel, any emergency service work, is
Speaker 2: people like that that actually spice my interest because I
Speaker 2: know they've got skill sets, I know they've got a background,
Speaker 2: and generally speaking, I know the training they've done to
Speaker 2: get into those services. So yeah, that's probably the biggest
Speaker 2: thing that sparked my interest when I hear.
Speaker 1: Did you give them any feedback at the end of
Speaker 1: this on what we could do for season four? Did
Speaker 1: you go Okay, the heighst was good. The Robney O
Speaker 1: this is great, But I reckon we should do this, like,
Speaker 1: are you allowed to give you know, the people, the
Speaker 1: powers that be some you know, some insights or some
Speaker 1: ideas for what we could do next year.
Speaker 2: Look, I think it's going to be bigger and better.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm going to say to that. There's always,
Speaker 2: you know, more we can do. And look, there's so
Speaker 2: many distant scenarios out there that we can use as
Speaker 2: part of a part of hunting. And I'll did say
Speaker 2: seat and four we all knock it up another knos
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: My last question is something I ask everybody who joins
Speaker 1: the podcast. What is something from behind the scenes, something
Speaker 1: that we as an audience wouldn't get a chance to see.
Speaker 1: What's up behind the scenes, secret that you like to
Speaker 1: get out when you're sitting around the dinner table, when
Speaker 1: you're with your friends, what do you tell.
Speaker 2: Them, mallam Dan, I'm drink a lot of tea.
Speaker 1: A lot of tea. Okay, then you spill a lot
Speaker 1: of tea about how the show is made. I have
Speaker 1: to let you go because.
Speaker 2: There is a lot of discussions around.
Speaker 1: The cup of tea. I am so fascinated by this show,
Speaker 1: and thank you so much for taking the time and
Speaker 1: being so generous and talking to me today. I am
Speaker 1: on the hunt with you guys and watching it with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and I look forward to talking
Speaker 1: to you next year. And you're trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: wrestle up some more criminals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, thanks you, saying man nowhere is at all