ABC takes a crack at reality television with cheap 'Survivor' knock-off 'The Mole'

By Matt Manser

Daily Arts Writer

The mole will lie to your face. The mole will sabotage your plans. "The Mole" will put you to sleep.

Using a radical new programming strategy, ABC has come out with "The Mole," which attempts to capitalize on the reality show craze that began with last summer's "Survivor." It's a strategy that's just crazy enough to work, considering the mega-success of the "Malcolm in the Middle" clone "Tucker" and the "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" clone "Greed."

Without any further sarcasm, here is the premise of "The Mole." Gather up ten strangers (five men, five women), and send them on a 28-day journey across 15,000 miles, four countries and two continents. Along the way, the group will have to perform several tests. With each passed test, prize money is added to a pot that will go to the winner at the end of the last show. If every test is passed, the pot would grow to Dr. Evil's magic number, one million dollars.

Here's the twist: One of the ten is not really a contestant. He or she is actually "the mole." The first show began with a definition of a mole. "Mole: noun, a spy (a double agent) who establishes a cover long before beginning espionage." Fox had to do the same thing for "Temptation Island," defining temptation at the beginning of the show, which goes to show that both ABC and Fox know their audience.

The mole works for the show and tries to keep the group from passing the tests in order to keep money out of the pot. The other nine contestants, as well as the viewer, have to figure out who exactly is the mole. At the end of each episode the contestants must take a quiz about the mole, with questions such as, "Is the mole a man or a woman?"

The contestant who does the worst on the quiz gets "executed." No, it's not what you think. This is an ABC show, not Fox. The executed contestant just has to leave the show. One contestant gets executed each week until the mole is revealed and the winner is declared.

The first show introduced the ten contestants. There's helicopter pilot Jim, med school student Afi, undercover cop Steven, retired detective Charlie, visual display artist Wendi, single father Manuel, former peace corps volunteer Kate, law school lecturer Kathryn, former snowboarding champion Jennifer and bartender Henry. But don't worry if you forget who's who, because handy graphics pop up on the screen to remind the viewer of each contestant's name and their only important characteristic (such as "Manuel, the Single Father," or "Jennifer, the Jock"). There's also a host, Anderson Cooper, who stands around and does host stuff.

There were two group tests on the first episode. The first test required everyone in the group to skydive from 10,000 feet, which was worth $75,000. Some artificial tension was created (Manuel is nervous!), but they all jumped. Next was a complicated test involving the deciphering of a secret code and finding an ATM machine in France. They passed this test too, so the mole was not very successful.

The show concluded with the group taking the mole quiz, with everyone revealing their suspicions. Manuel wound up getting the most wrong on the quiz and was executed. This was followed by a heartwarming montage in tribute to the departed single father, because like other reality shows, "The Mole" thinks we should have deep feelings about someone because he was on TV for an hour. All in all "The Mole" is not a horrible show, but it lacks the originality of "Survivor" and the pure concentrated evil of "Temptation Island."

Courtesy of ABC

Who is The Mole? It ain't this guy.