219: Hilary Innes

Hilary Innes is an Executive Producer at Network Ten, and she oversees the shows that I work on, including Bachelor, Bachelorette and the soon to be seen Bachelor in Paradise.  

Hilary is a legend of the Australian TV industry, and we talk all about her time working closely with Ray Martin during the heady days of the Midday Show on 9 - and yes, the famous Normie Rowe/Ron Casey punch-out segment was one she produced and she tells the whole story in this conversation.  

Hilary went on to be the Head of Entertainment at Nine, and from there left the network to become Head of Entertainment at ITV studios Australia, a production company that makes such massive shows as I’m a Celebrity, and The Voice - so she went from making a bunch of huge shows from different production companies to making a bunch of huge shows for different networks.   

Coming back into the broadcast side of things, Hilary is now an Executive Producer at Network Ten - where she oversees and steers from the Network side of things various shows in their line up, including the ones I work on.  

Full disclosure, I adore working with Hilary and you can tell that as we speak.   

She has such an incredible depth of knowledge and experience and her career is truly remarkable both in the legacy of the shows she’s made and the time she’s been a major influence in Australian Television. Hilary also has a magnificent sense of style, and my team I work with on Bachelor are always commenting about how incredible her jacket is, or my goodness look at that scarf. She’s brilliant.  

When we recorded this we’d just wrapped up Bachelor in Paradise, so she and I do talk about that a bit, and as you can tell - we’re both very excited by it.  

There is another side to Hilary which I am very grateful she opened up about. At the same time as having a career that anyone would envy, at home Hilary is dealing with her partner of over 20yrs slowly succumbing to Multi-System Atrophy, a degenerative neurological disease that is fatal and has no cure.    Listening to the way Hilary talks about their relationship, even in the face of this extraordinary challenge, will move you beyond measure. I’m so grateful Hilary came to my apartment back in December so that we could talk.  

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