Hunted stars respond to claims their capture was ‘scripted’

They managed to stay completely undetected for 10 days, but Hunted stars Sonny-Joe and Grace were finally captured on Tuesday night in one of the wildest reality TV moments of the year.

The pair of Fugitives were about to board a train in Ballarat when they were spotted by the Hunters, who arrived at the station on the trail of a different team.

Chatting with Yahoo Lifestyle following their dramatic elimination, the pair opened up about the experience and responded to claims from viewers that the epic capture was ‘fake’.

“When we spoke to the Hunters on FaceTime after being captured, you could see on our faces we were trying so hard to work out what happened because we were just so confused,” Grace says.

“Everything you see is real,” Sonny-Joe asserts. “What you see is what you get, and obviously there’s a lot of stuff you didn’t see, but nothing is scripted at all.”

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Sonny-Joe went on to shut down claims that the team’s cameraperson gave away their location and helped the Hunters.

“Everyone’s saying, ‘Oh the cameraman is just behind them’,” he says. “The cameraman is on our side, so it’s not like he’s literally walking behind us with a camera.

“Everywhere we would walk, he would be on the other side of the road hiding and filming. He stayed hidden, which is something the audience doesn’t see. He wanted to get to the end as well with us because he was on our team.”

‘Wild goose chase’

Speaking about their game plan heading onto the show, the friends spill that they were influenced by crime shows and pop culture with their dramatic disguises.

“We were just like, how can we go as over the top as possible? How can we plant misinformation?” Grace says. “We really really wanted to send them on a wild goose chase, which we did.”

“At the end of the day, it’s a TV show so a lot is cut out, but it still showed who Grace and I are,” Sonny-Joe shares. “We’re the underdogs from the city that don't know how to put up tents and we’ve never camped before, but our decoys worked.

“It showed us dressing up as a priest and a nun with our costumes and we had our laser light festival. So even though we were paranoid and everything, which wasn’t really shown, it did show that we had a lot of fun along the way when we did feel safe and that’s who we are, so I'm happy with that.”

While their adventure ended earlier than they hoped, the duo still feel “amazing” about their efforts and how they managed to fool the Hunters for so long.

“We’re very proud of ourselves because it wasn't our plan that was foiled, they caught us by accident,” Grace remarks. “And if you accidentally do your job, are you really doing your job?”

“The show's called Hunted and the professionals didn’t hunt us,” Sonny-Joe adds. “They had nothing on us, no intel at all. Technically they didn't hunt us down, they found us, so it should be called ‘Founded’.”

Hunted airs 7:30pm Sunday – Tuesday on Channel 10.

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