Cath and Kel (not to be confused with the outstanding duo in Kath and Kim) were the first duo to be eliminated from Hunted Australia 2023 during the July 17 premiere.
The long-time friends, who were both fans of the show, decided to audition on a whim, thinking that their likelihood of being cast was low. However, as fate would have it, the pair were thrown into the deep end, not realising just how real it would feel to be chased.
“It did [feel like a game] to start with when you’re building up,” Cath said in an interview with Mediaweek post their elimination. “But that moment when you’re on the boat, and they’re about to pull into the dock and there’s a helicopter hovering It kicks off this adrenaline inside your body that you would never, I can’t remember ever feeling that before.
“There were drones popping in as well. It was very heightened and everybody felt that way, looking around the group the 10 teams all had the same feeling. When they said ‘blast’ and all just have to bolt!”
Ten
Before their eventual capture, the team were feeling pretty “confident”.
“We were sort of thinking, if we got through the first day and we could get out of town, we’d be good,” Kel said during the same interview. “It all changed fairly significantly, fairly quickly, obviously. And looking at the show last night, we can see the moment that it changed because they said we weren’t even on their radar.”
What got Cath and Kel caught?
While the duo taunted the Hunters with a cheeky Where’s Wally-inspired photograph, it was ultimately a WhatsApp text chain that brought them down. Digital Forensics were easily able to restore the chat history, finding extensive details about where the Fugitives were trying to hide.
Cath and Kel. Ten
When asked about the texts, Cath admitted that they didn’t realise those messages could be restored.
“It didn’t cross my mind. I mean, if you’re going to delete something? Isn’t it just deleted?” She said.
“George [an associate who was trying to help them stay safe] has written everything you can think of and Cath’s deleted it. For someone who’s not very tech-savvy, that’s it. But clearly, that’s not it. We found that out the hard way,” Kel, who was in on the same interview, added.
Hunted Australia 2023 airs at 7.30 pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on 10 and 10Play.