The final two teams battle it out for $100,000 on tonight's episode of Tracked. Photo / Grant Stirling
The final two teams battle it out for $100,000 on tonight's episode of Tracked. Photo / Grant Stirling
Three’s new reality series Tracked saw elite athletes from all over the world compete to evade capture by special forces trackers, but it was two East Otago lads who took home the coveted $100,000 prize in tonight’s finale.
Team Brown’s Gabe Ross and Riley Meason, both 20, beat out their fellow finalists, Team Grey’s Emily Wilson and Simone Maie, in the last gruelling challenge in Westhaven on the South Island’s northwest coast which saw them outnumbered by military trackers.
Hunters Ross and Meason became the hunted, and won - and they still can’t quite believe it.
Team Brown's Gabe Ross and Riley Meason have taken out the $100,000 cash prize on Tracked. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
“To be honest, I think we actually had pretty low expectations,” Ross tells the Herald ahead of the finale airing.
“They’d all done things like ultra-marathons and jumping out of planes and we’ve just done a lot of hunting.”
“All these guys have so much more years of experience and stuff,” Meason adds. The pair were just 19 at the time of filming the Warner Brothers Discovery show, making them the youngest of the bunch.
Pitted against parkour experts and ex-soldiers, their day job as hunting conservationists undoubtedly gave them an edge in the competition. They’re used to spending days in remote bush keeping New Zealand’s predator population under control.
Ross and Meason say they managed to work as a team throughout the competition. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
Physically gruelling as it was, the toughest part of any challenge was knowing they were being chased.
“It’s the mental side of things,” Meason explains. “You’re under stress and on edge the whole time, you’re freaking out.”
That mental strain made it all the more satisfying when their strategies would pay off, Ross adds. “Obviously checking out at the end of each episode was awesome. But I think above that, when we both agree on something and we really back it and then we execute that, it’s just so cool.”
Meason agrees. “Proving to ourselves that when we do it, it actually works.”
In that environment, not working together could prove fatal. It certainly did for Team Yellow’s Danee Marmolejo and Stephania Zitis, who ended up self-eliminating in challenge 6 and hitting the SOS button after an argument. Ross and Meason managed to work as a team throughout the competition, and say the experience has “definitely” grown their friendship.
“Both of us were so scared of making a decision that led to our capture that we spent so much time just going back and forth until we agreed on something,” Ross reveals. “’Cause neither of us wanted to let the other one down, really.”
Host Vinnie Jones congratulates Team Brown on their win. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
“S***ing ourselves the entire time brings you pretty close!” Meason adds with a chuckle.
As for the show’s host Vinnie Jones, he may have been a tough nut to crack - when runners-up Wilson and Maie left the show, crushed after being tracked, he said gruffly, “We’ve had enough tears” - but it made the moment he met Ross and Meason at the finish line all the more heartfelt.
“He’s a man that what you see is what you get,” Meason says.
“He’s pretty straight up, just straight to the point. Lovely guy. You know, you can get on with him really well, but if he doesn’t agree with something you’ve said, he’ll tell you.”
You could tell as he embraced both Kiwi lads that he was genuinely proud of what they’d achieved. But the Wānaka-based mates are just thankful they got the opportunity to compete.
“For us, every time we got through to the next round, it was just that little bit more exposure and we’re just so grateful for every second we got on the TV,” Ross says.
They now have plans to use their $100,000 prize to take their content creation brand The Weekend Mish, where they document their hunting exploits, to the point where it’s “a full-time gig”.
At the time of writing, the final episode was yet to air, so they were still waiting to see the reaction from their friends and families, who had been both “very invested” and “very stressed” while watching them on screen.
“I think it’ll be very special,” Ross says, with Meason adding, “It’ll be a very special moment - all the tears, I suppose!”
And if you’ve been watching and are itching for the opportunity to strap on a pack, lace up your boots, and challenge yourself, Ross says, “Grab it and go in with a hundred per cent. But equally, take it one step at a time.”
Meason agrees. “Just get out there and have a crack.”
Tracked is available to stream on ThreeNow
Bethany Reitsma is an Auckland-based journalist covering lifestyle and entertainment stories. She joined the Herald in 2019.
