The Mole

- Season 1

(2000)

Ten contestants meet each other for the first time and are told that they have to complete several challenges to win money for their prize kitty, but one of them is the Mole, who is trying to secretly sabotage their money-making efforts. They have to perform a skydive, face having some of their luggage items repacked into backpacks, with some of them trying to predict an item that would be left out, and have to locate a cell where one of them is being held hostage. All ten contestants then have what they have learned about the Mole put to the test in an elimination ...

The nine remaining contestants have to guide three drivers around a course in Ross used as a stage in the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally within a set time limit, record people laughing in public places and answer some trivia questions that determine how many strokes one of them has to complete a hole of the Launceston Golf Club, before they again put their knowledge of the Mole to the test in an elimination quiz, in which the person with the lowest score is eliminated.

The eight remaining contestants face challenges of surviving inside a maze while trying to escape, sampling some local cheeses, beers and wines in an attempt to find some imposters from the Australian mainland at a formal dinner, and organising a party to raise money for charity, before their knowledge of the Mole is tested again at a computer quiz where the person who scores the lowest is eliminated.

The seven remaining contestants face challenges that involve fishing, spending the night on an island that was once a convict settlement, and escaping from the island on a raft that was built by other people in the group, before their knowledge of the Mole is again put to the test when they sit another computer quiz, where the person who has the lowest score is eliminated.

The six remaining contestants have to capture a flag on a hill while avoiding three snipers, solve three brain-teaser puzzles and photograph some wildlife before their knowledge of the Mole's identity and actions is again put to the test when they sit their next computer quiz, from which the person with the lowest score is eliminated.

The five remaining contestants have to abseil to retrieve some flags from the face of the Gordon Dam, predict how one of them would behave in three scenarios and face a night-time interrogation from one of their own trying to find out what challenge they had performed, before they are again tested on what they have learned about the Mole through a computer quiz in which the person who receives the lowest score is eliminated.

The four remaining contestants compete in some sports against some champions of those sports, while trying to avoid going against the champion of their particular sport, are challenged to identify a celebrity that one of them had photographed in Melbourne with their permission, and have to perform some tasks, some relatively straightforward, others more unpleasant, with the spin of a roulette wheel deciding which task or tasks they must perform, before their latest knowledge about the Mole is tested by another computer quiz from which the person with the lowest score ...

The final three contestants have to cycle in relay to the top of Mount Wellington in three hours, retrieve some treasures scattered around Hobart and raise the main sail of a ship, before they sit their final quiz in a cell at Port Arthur, from which one person emerges as the winner, and another is revealed as the Mole.

The ten contestants reunite at a hotel in Sydney to watch the episode that revealed the winner and the Mole on TV, with the seven eliminated contestants polled before the screening on which of the final three they thought were the winner, the loser and the Mole. The Mole's secret sabotages and clues to their identity are also revealed.