De Mol (The Mole) is a Belgian realitygame show that originally aired from 6 December 1998 to 19 March 2000 and again from 19 January to 16 March 2003 on TV1 with Michiel Devlieger as host. A revival has aired since 1 February 2016 on VIER with Gilles De Coster as host. The show won the famous Rose d'Or award in 2000. The format has been licensed in 40 countries from all around the world.
Players in The Mole must work together to complete various physical and mental challenges to build up a significant prize for the winner. One of them, however, is "the Mole", a double agent hired by the producers to sabotage the efforts of the group. The Mole must be careful to avoid drawing too much suspicion to themself. Using journals, players must track vast amounts of data about the person(s) they suspect of being the Mole, such as seating positions, clothing colours, minor discussion topics, and so on. The quiz at the end of each episode tests players' knowledge of the Mole, and determines by lowest score (or slowest time, in the event of a tie) who is eliminated from the game.
Format
Each series of The Mole involves a group of 10 contestants. During each episode, the contestants participate in a number of challenges, each assigned a monetary value. However, one of these contestants has been selected by production to be the Mole; it's their job to try to prevent the other players from winning challenges without revealing themself to others. The Mole is told what challenges to expect, but not always how to sabotage them; they must decide whether to intervene and how they do so.
To eliminate someone, all contestants take a quiz (which consists of 20 questions) at the end of every episode regarding the identity of the Mole and their involvement in the previous activities. The player who scores the lowest on this quiz, or was slowest to answer in case of a tie, is eliminated from the game. When there are only three players remaining, including the mole, the winner of the game is the one that answers the most questions correctly on the final quiz. The final quiz is usually 30 questions.
While success in the challenges builds up potential winnings, it is also critical to stay in the game by scoring better than opponents on the quiz, usually by attempting to draw their suspicions of the Mole's identity toward oneself. Since the Mole must use subterfuge to misdirect attention from their attempts to derail the team, disingenuous attempts to emulate the Mole must be subtle, while still noticeable and suspicious.
↑ During the fourth episode of season 10, Philippe withdrew from the game due to mental health reasons, also revealing that he was the Mole. A new Mole was selected among the remaining six candidates at the end of the episode.[1]
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