The Mole Australia
Several weeknights a week, Seven Network Australia
Lots of people clamouring for a place to talk Aussie Mole so please allow me to provide.
HOWEVER, be aware that with the odd scheduling you will be obliged to keep up – if you fall behind you are advised to keep off the page until you’ve caught up. I will not stop discussion about anything that has happened on episodes that have been broadcast, the world cannot wait for you.
This is fair warning – if you have not watched the latest episode and you don’t want to be spoiled then keep out! Aussie watchers – I *may* ask you to hold off discussion here until the next morning your time, we’ll play it by ear. Feel free to discuss presentation when you want though.
Good luck Mole Hunters!
Week one episodes go out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, so if my appreciation of timezone based logic is correct, episodes will probably be available in the West from “sources” also on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights our time.
Or at least I *hope* they will be available.
DownUnder TV may be your friend.
Episode 1 – Tuesday 2nd July
OK, it feels sort of somewhere between Aussie Mole 4, 5 and Dutch Mole, not thrilled about the title sequence, but the graphics are clean and neat. A bit too early to judge the host I think, a bit like Art Rooijakkers I suspect he’s a bit too young to carry the necessary authority, but I still enjoy Art nonetheless.
Biggest problem for me is that the contestants aren’t all that likable on first impressions. I hope this doesn’t kill the show.
We’ve have a show that’s filmed and produced in the traditional Aussie style, but its taken the Dutch rules – there’s an elected treasurer and exemptions (and we’re aware Freebies are to come). I fear if they’re saying “they’re playing for $250k total” but they’re already giving away the chance at around $50k by the first test, it’s quite likely they mean “the prize pot will be end up being around $250,000”. I hope not though.
I’m not quite convinced we need the fast forwarding and rewinding through the tasks.
However the opening episode featured decent Mole-esque tasks:
The Drop Off – three teams of four are dropped in different locations about 5km from a large flag. They must all reach the flag within two hours to win $15,000 for the pot. At each drop-off is a one of the contestants suitcases and the instructions for the task telling them which direction to go in. If they’re heading in the right direction they will happen upon the other suitcases, one of which has an “emergency envelope” which they are to open if they don’t think they will get there in time. Opening the envelop costs $5k from the challenge, and whatsmore they are charged $100 for each suitcase left en route.
The Treasurer – The team must elect a treasurer who will look after the pot throughout the show. Don’t pick the Mole! They are offered an exemption from the first quiz if they give back half the pot.
High Wire Relay – Pairs of contestants must transfer batons across a gorge on high wires. As there are 12 contestants, there will be six goes. The first successful baton transfer is worth $500, and the challenge is worth double with each successful transfer, but if a baton is dropped or a contestant falls off it wipes the money, and if someone refuses to attempt the challenge the team will earn zero.
Tomorrow will conclude this task, and it looks like the “team split into two and attempt to each carry weight and find a big money place to meet up with as much as possible” task from Dutch Mole Japan is getting a look in tomorrow as well.
Link to my analysis: http://www.realitytvdesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/mo-money-mole-problems.html It’s not positive.
I agree with a lot of this, although I was surprised that I didn’t feel bored particularly given the first episode only had 1.5 challenges. I do hope the ingenious element returns to the tasks, and you’re right that that it seems all the challenges so far seem to involve walking from one point to another.
But. I still fairly enjoyed it despite everything, and there’s loads I’d do differently.
Edit: Probably worth pointing out that without ads it was about 45 minutes, just discovered it was a 75 minute premiere with the ads which may affect opinion.
The rating was mediocre apparently- 13th for the night overall, 9th if you take out the news programs (for comparison, the premiere got 864,000 viewers. There were two other reality shows in that timeslot for all or part of the time- it beat one (Masterchef at 798,000), but lost heavily to another in part (The Block at 1,292,000- but it was only against the premiere for the first half hour. The program after it got 962,000).
The thing is, it probably got helped by the fact it was a premiere and the show following it was the series finale of a popular Australian drama, Packed to The Rafters (which was the highest non-news show of the night at 1,326,000).
Nights two and three will be more telling- I agree there was too much padding; it seemed like it was supposed to be one episode a week but they added a lot of contestant interviews and such to make it two or three…
Episode 2 – Wed 3rd July
Moneybags – Team split into two teams of six and start 5km away from each other on a dirt track. At their start points are 40 $100 money bags weighing 10kg each and materials to construct something to help carry it. Along the route are money flags ranging from $50 to $10k. To win the money, both teams must meet – if they do they’ll win the value of the bags, and if they’re at a bonus flag they’ll win that money as well. One team is tempted by a champagne tower, if they ditch the bags and pick up the tower it’s worth $10,000 if the teams meet. Top value for the game is $22k.
Keys to Comfort – Team are split into three groups of four, each foursome pairs up. The team have fifteen minutes total to find keys hidden around a bunker. If you find a key you own it. The team will be camping this evening, and each key will unlock a box of supplies, but each one comes at a cost. The power to unlock a box lies with the indivuals who have the keys.
It looks like we’re getting a variant of the night chained up in the forest challenge from Dutch Mole tomorrow, and the first quiz.
Don’t know who the Mole is, quite like Aisha and Alex at the moment.
I had high hopes for this and frankly im a bit disappointing. All of the blatant sabotaging is really annoying; yes it is a part of the game but this early on it seems a bit ridiculous. Accepting the exemption i can kind of understand, but she really didn’t act like it was such a burden to take it. I really do not think that the mole had the part in the loss of any money so far, the only exception being when they left the luggage because only the mole would of known that would cause a penalty. I really hope this gets better and goes down to one episode a week this is just to long and drawn out as it stands.
I’m thinking Shaun. Aside from the obvious sabotage (the suitcases, taking the shortcut) there’s going first in the traverse (meaning that if a later pair fails, as everyone expected Kerrie to, the maximum money cuts down from $16k to no more than $4k) plus his bad sandbag-carrier design (one of the girls was later seen carrying the two bars but no sand) plus arguing and wasting time at the $10k flag (making the meeting more unlikely) plus finding two keys in a challenge where the more keys you have, the more money you lose. It’s already too many little things to ignore.
And if you are playing along, the only way to get the $22k on offer in that challenge was to have Team A switch for the champagne tower, have Team B take all twenty of their bags, and both meet at the $10k flag. Was never going to happen.
I’m a bit worried that they’ve already tried to give away $53,000 and it’s not even the first quiz yet.
I reckon Shaun would be playing too hard too early if he was the Mole. Just gut feeling, but I’ve been way off in the Dutch show so.
Actually it would be great to have a Mole who was really in the thick of it – I think one of the things older Mole does better than newer Mole is more all or nothing tasks, so if it goes wrong it feels like a big move, rather than the just chipping away element that modern credit-for-partial-success tasks bring.
Not good…ep 2 dipped to 700,000 viewers..
Worth noting that there was a last minute timeslot change though. In every state except Western Australia, an episode of Home and Away was pre-empted last week, and they decided to catch up to where they were by putting an extra episode on Wednesday night. (They already put what would be the Friday episode on at 7:30 Thursday because of the AFL football in some states, which is why the Thursday episode has a later scheduled start.)
It’s not great ratings, but I’m actually surprised it’s not lower – I was expecting about 650k.
Episode 3 – Thursday 4th July
Beach Brain Teaser – Team split into four brainy people and eight builders. Team of eight builders have to recreate a diagram on a bit of card in five minutes with the planks of wood provided – the diagram is of some offset scales (the Scales of Justice). Brainy team then gets five minutes to balance up the scales by moving five bits of wood – it’s a giant matchstick puzzle, basically. The prize is all the money they spent making the camp the previous night.
Chain Gang – all twelve contestants are handcuffed to a chain. In the middle is a plinth containing the exemption won on the first day and a key. Every five minutes the plinth rises for 30 seconds so the key and the exemption are accessable and there’s enough give in the chain so that one person can get to the middle at one time. The choice is take the key and enjoy some glamping that evening or take the exemption and condemn yourself and everyone still on the chain to spend the night there open to the elements still attached to the chain. If EVERYONE takes the key, $10k is added to the pot.
It’s a really rubbish game from a “defend the exemption” point of view and I don’t think should have been used as such, but as a game of politics and brinkmanship I like it. They totally fiddled the clock though – we were told they’ve got an hour and that the podium rises every five minutes (5×12 making 60), yet when they got to the final two there was twenty minutes left representing five more podium rises. Come on producers, give it to us straight. It’s a shame they’ve used it this early as it’d be more fun with a bit more history between the contestants.
Then there was the quiz.
An odd first week – six challenges and a test, would much prefer as two episodes rather than three I think, but having thought the cast were unlikeable at the start I’m warming to some of them.
Just glancing through David’s excellent Mole Challenge guide (http://raceguysrecaps.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/themole.pdf) and discovered the zamericans did the chain gang thing already a few years ago. Don’t remember that at all!
THANK YOU. I thought I was the only one who noticed the shenanigans with the chain challenge. (The Dutch version also did it, by the way.) And that if Kerrie had to give up her exemption in order to ‘defend’ it, it wasn’t hers to begin with. Why not just have two players exempt?
Also, 650,000 viewers last night. (Worth noting: In Australia, an average of 1,000,000 is normally a guaranteed renewal, while 600,000 is normally immediate cancellation. As in, don’t bother finishing the season.)
That was so stupid. She earned it by giving up half of the pot she should not of had to ‘defend’ it. And since the exemption was not taken shouldn’t she of gotten it back because it was successfully defended. Basically they are just looking for ways to take away money from the players no matter how ridiculous.
The Dutch version had a very funny aftermath of course, which we didn’t get here unfortunately.
If the wikipedia article was right (I don’t know if it is) she got some freebies as consolation…still, if she hadn’t taken it in the first place, it probably would have still been offered in that game, so all it did was make her a suspect.
edited to add: Apparently the demographics are OK though- it was a top 5 show in the 16-39 age bracket all three nights, so it’s schewing young.
I’m surprised they kept it quiet if they did!
If I had to pick now, I’d say they’re going for a low key mole – it was meant to be a big brash “Culture Clash”, so I suspect the mole will be a more subtle character – someone who the other contestants don’t really think capable. I’m going Ally.
I’m going Shaun. Ally’s been responsible for adding over $11,000 to the fledgling pot, even if you exclude the chain challenge. http://realitytvdesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/colonel-bastard-in-library-with-re-mole.html
Shaun feels too obvious in the edit to me, honestly.
On the scheduling- They were always supposed to go back to two eps a week after the first couple of weeks, though it was supposed to be Wednesday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Thursday..
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/television/channel-7-reality-show-the-mole-to-take-on-the-block-sky-high-and-masterchef/story-e6frfmyi-1226668678441
I think they did Tuesdays to try and blunt Great Australian Bakeoff, and to try and possibly get some help from Winners and Losers, which starts up this week. Anyone know how many weeks The Block has left? Two or three?
Episode 4 – Tuesday 9th July
I thought this was a pretty good episode all told:
Speed Reading: The 11 players are split into three teams – one team consisting of two “readers”, and then a further group of 6 and 3. The six split into pairs and stand at various points on a cliff with large bits of fabric and a pot of paint and also two envelopes – one containing four categories, and the other containing a letter list with associated dollar values with tougher letters being worth more money. They will choose two combinations of category and letter to make as clear as possible on the bits of fabric. The other three are in a speedboat, they must spot the canvasses, interpret what they say, and then try and come up with as many answers they can that fit categories and letters. Back on dry land, the two readers must attempt to interpret the speedboaters’ writing for the money.
Map Madness: Team split into three – two with “good eyes” and four and five. The good eyes stand atop a building with walkie talkies and a map. They must lead the two teams to four marked buildings (with a large flag with a cross on the roof) as each one contains a clue to the location of Shura the host. If they all get there within 90 minutes, the team win $5000, but win or lose the first team to arrive all win a freebie (effectively a bonus point in the quiz, which they can save if they want). As each team is led by one of the pairs of good eyes, that winning person will also receive a freebie. How much information they share with each other is up to them.
And then there was a quiz. It seems a bit odd having a quiz the episode after last, but it feels right as well, the pacing felt better.
On the show website they had close up pictures of the Exemption token, Freebie Token, and a Mole Money bill- didn’t see any clues in the bill like that one season in the Netherlands, at least to my knowledge…
I’m starting to wonder if they’ll show the whole series now- Tuesday’s ep got 555,000 viewers (Even Deal or No Deal got 597,000- and it airs a couple of hours earlier…)
The Block should only have two weeks left, maximum.
And the timeslot’s been moved – tonight’s episode is on at 9:30, and it looks like the rest of the show will get moved out of the 7:30/8:00 timeslots too. (Next Wednesday’s episode was always going to be moved because of the rugby – supposedly, it was to air on Thursday as a double episode, but that’s not looking so certain any more.)
I’m willing to bet the amount of money Samsung is paying to get their products pimped on this show (the laptops used for the test, and Shura’s oft-seen tablet) is going to keep the show on until the end of the season at least, if not in the same timeslot it began.
And confirmed – 9:30 Wednesdays. Looks like they’re committed to showing it until the end, but it seems as though we’ll be getting double episodes to burn it off quicker.
I’d be intrigued to see if it finds an audience in its accelerated (i.e. basically normal) state.
I thought Tuesday’s episode was quite good.
Episode 5 – Wednesday 10th July
Treasure Hunt – One person in the team is designated the spotter and will spend the game in a boat. The rest of the team must solve a trail of clues buried in the sand (or otherwise) to find four kites (although three are in a beach hut) which when flown will spell out a message. If the spotter can read the message within the hour the team win $5k.
Path to Temptation – The team select someone to go first. In the library, arranged in a path, are twelve boxes. You look in one, decide if you want what’s inside then move on. You can only take the contents of one box, and once you’ve shut the lid you can’t go back. After you’ve gone round, you pick the next player to go, and you can hint to them in front of everyone which box might be worthwhile, then you stand in the gallery where you’re not meant to to communicate further with the team still to play (doing so costs $1k a pop).
The contents of the boxes are:
1 – Exemption for Quiz 7
2 – $5,000
3 – Three Freebies for you and one for a friend
4 – $1,000
5 – Two Freebies for a friend
6 – Two exemptions for Quiz 6
7 – $2,500
8 – Exemption for Quiz 3 + ? [Power to be revealed next episode]
9 – $1,000
10 – Five freebies
11 – $5,000
12 – Empty
Everyone basically now hates each other. I still think that they’re so obviously editing Shaun to be The Mole he probably isn’t, but I don’t know who it is.
Really hope things pick up for it when it sticks to one night, if they re-edit so all the challenges and a quiz happen in one episode the pacing would work much better. I enjoyed the temptation game, but it didn’t need half an hour of screen time.
It really needed to switch places with Chain Gang – this one is all about exposing the alliances that are starting to form in the group, while that one is all about exploiting that the group knows each other and is starting to close in on who the Mole is. Still good though.
Got 353,000 last night and was outside the night’s top 20 most watched shows. (Its replacement at 7:30 got similar ratings to Tuesday’s episode.)
Absolutely, I do think it’s finding its feet but it also feels a little bit like they’ve picked the challenges completely at random without an awful lot of thought about narrative.
Exactly. And this isn’t the first time – we’ve had the walkietalkie maze challenge in the second last episode before, and one time they tried to give away two free passes in the same episode with only four players left (which would have made the episode a foregone conclusion if two non-Mole players won them).
I do wish they’d come up with more (indeed, any) original challenges though – our original challenges were generally comparable to the standard of the good Dutch challenges if not better, and it’s sad they’ve chickened out of even trying.
Yeah, this feels like a Best Of Dutch series, and as such has too many Psychologically Interesting challenges (Chain Gang, Walk of Temptation, even Money Bags – Though I did like the $10k champagne tower take of it) too tightly packed together, and even those that would be fairly nice straight forward tasks are being given twists to make them more Psychologically Interesting – The navigating through Melbourne task would be interesting sans the race for exemptions bit (Though the clues might need to be a bit more cryptic without that); with it coming an episode after Chain Gang and an episode or two before Walk of Temptation it just feels too much.
I’m totally with you Brig Bother..
I do like this series overall because heck, it’s the Mole and I love it – always.. 🙂 Still, they could have done so much better overall already. It feels kind of sloppy, it’s all dragged out too much.. This show is all about building up suspense and tension.. where is that element if all we see is people watch and fiddle around with their potential freebies etc. I mean I loved this challenge on the Dutch Mole, and I still liked it here due to the mindgames – but the ‘mental pressurecooker’ it didn’t feel like that at all, because it was going on for too long.
The pace is still wrong, and the suspicions aren’t there. Where are the vidcams with contestants explaining what they thought might be suspicious in challenges – hardly there imho. Why do we get to know so little about the contestants really and about their personalities other than the fights and stuff like that. The emphasis is far too much on the drama, not on the intrigue. 🙁
Why did they make such a dog’s breakfast of the elimination (not termination thank you.. it’s always been elimination..), with no tension whatsoever..? How did they manage to do that, in those setting and with no build up??
Sorry if this sounds harsh, I do enjoy watching the series overall but it just saddens me to see that this is what they made of it in some respects. I would have loved to see an original new challenge here and there – I get the redo, it’s fine as I like these challenges and some twist or so here and there. But at least make it at least as good as the original.. I feel like in most cases they missed the mark by the wrong setting,the wrong combinations (especially in casting and drama..) and too slow a pace, so it just doesn’t have the same effect…
Another thing that bothers me a bit is that I find most of the male contestants quite unlikeable. I understand individual game play that’s fine no problem. Strategy too. But in some cases with these guys it appears to be more about ego than actual real game play or to their benefit.. or at least otherwise we don’t get to see it. They are all so impressed with themselves it seems.. 😛 I’m betting and kind of hoping for the Mole to be female at this point.. would serve the rather big male ego’s in this game right imho. 😛
Still enjoying it though, the crosses/hunt challenge was very good at least and yeah, it’s the Mole.. so.. let’s hope for the best for the rest of it.. 😀
One more thing. 😀
I thought it was very interesting to see that the ‘Vrijstellingsroute’ as we saw in S11 of the Dutch series originally and the ‘Path of Temptation’ had lots of similarities on the one hand – not just in terms of the actual challenge being an exact replica but also in terms of the group dynamics and buddy-buddy/alliance tendencies, ending up with a bunch with little if anything at the end.. On the other hand the Dutch contestants left at the end were also quite down to earth about it knowing they would have done the same thing if they had been in their shoes. They therefore did take the money in the end. They didn’t like it they were miffed, but they also understood it, got over it and realized that in the end the only thing to actually do was just earn some money, they might then still take home in the end if they did win…
I understand how people could feel how unfair this was, but not taking the money and being applauded for it seemed odd to me as well. Because then basically you’re not just being screwed by the others, you’re also possibly screwing yourself. I understand the sentiment, but it felt a little hypocritical too as none of those players in the end would have done any differently, they’ve all been shown to act or be willing to act selfishly and priding themselves on it even.
Another clear difference is that in the Dutch version pragmatism prevailed in another aspect too.. People started negotiating.. as in : I’ll give you good information, if you give me one of your jokers/ freebies in return. They actually were honest about what was in there too.
Different tactics but even though there was a bit of an aftermath after this on the Dutch series too it never got to the point where they were now.. and in the end everyone benefitted a little anyway especially later on in the series when the tables were turned basically. I wonder if that will happen here too.. It was still interesting to watch but I think some of these contestants were reacting a little too shortsightedly tbh, and that could hurt the whole group.
For those of you who haven’t seen the original on S11 yet, here it is, with subtitles. 🙂
Agreed pretty much entirely, but I like a bit of drama in The Mole, and there being too little of it is my main issue with the Dutch version (Basically the abundance of free passes in the early stages seems to reduce the team bonding, which reduces the fallout when someone finally takes one, there’d be more potential for fireworks if the producers were more miserly with passes and jokers). But it works best as punctuation for the intrigue. The fights in this version are forgettable because they all run into each other and there doesn’t seem much interaction other than bickering… The fights in the British version? Most of them stick in my mind because they were few and far between, and as such memorable – Zi’s anger at Sara stabbing him in the back for a free pass, the fallout of the school task in S2 (Which was heavily edited down to around 5-10 minutes screen time – Apparently the argument lasted two hours.)
(As for Path of Temptation – I’m amazed no-one used the two jokers for a friend as leverage to get someone to actually take some money.)
Actually – I wonder how this team would react to something along the lines of suitcase negotiations, be it in the form of the UK S2 game where contestants had small negotiation periods and then had to each select a case, only winning money for the pot if each peson chose a different case and if two people chose the same case neither got anything (Nothing; £1k, 3 jokers, exemption) or the Dutch Japanese series where negotiations were done while crossing the road in opposite directions, carrying cases with them.
I agree that the men are so unlikeable it’s ridiculous, but at this point I’m resigned to Shaun being the Mole because nobody else has actually DONE anything to seem like the Mole. Like, Sam is trying to do it, but… if the Mole found a key in that terrible fort challenge, they would have revealed and spent it, not saved it for a confessional.
At least we don’t have to spend all season with Aquaboy trying to seem cool. He was seriously the dumbest person to ever play this game, and I’ve seen notable genius Dennis Rodman win the US version without taking notes.
On prize fund, since that’s come up a couple of times – assuming they settle into an average of 4 games per elimination (Which at the pace they’re going could happen, especially if when it drops to two double episodes a week the double episodes are 2 hour regular episodes everywhere else), the mean prize per game should be around $6250; most games being $5k and a couple of $0 games [The camping episode saw the key hunt game, which was for a negative pot, the puzzle minigame, which was to win back what was spent in the key hunt game, and the chain gang game, which was for $10k) buys the silly high early games prize funds; plus the potential $250k pot was told to the contestants, so it’s not likely that that happens to be what the actual pot worked out to be. Although I’m not sure how you’d work out a maximum prize available for open ended games like speed reading.
My understanding is that when they do an open-ended challenge, they set a theoretical maximum of 100 whatevers (kilograms of luggage unpacked, people found, etc) when working out the tally. Then again, with the different values I’m not sure how it would work here.
Episodes 6 and 7 – Wednesday 17th July
Steps of Truth (my title) – The team answer mathematical questions about things they’ve put on their application form. The answer is the amount of steps they will climb up a giant staircase inset on a hill. After each question they must drop a player, so it becomes more chinese whispery as it goes on. If at the end the final person is standing on the correct step, the group win $10k. Before the challenge they were asked if they wanted to gamble $10k to make the challenge worth $30k if they win it.
When they played this in the Dutch show people commented that actually they could cheat on the final question and just count the remaining steps, but this does not seem to be a valid tactic here.
Gutterball – Using pieces of gutter of various length, the team must transport a ball down a hill and into a milk pail, each successful transfer worth $5k. However they were not allowed to move their feet once the ball was in their gutter, they could not touch the ball and they couldn’t touch any piece of another’s pipe. If they break the rules but admit to it, they can start again at no penalty. If they break the rules and ignore it then when the ball reaches the pail the team win no money and are assessed a $1k pot penalty for each rule break. One contestant, the Ballboy, is in charge of placing the ball into the first bit of gutter and making sure the rules aren’t being broken. Four other team members control the guttering.
I was a bit disappointed they weren’t given the chance to build a giant marble run and had to do it effectively in relay, but there we are.
Then there was an elimination – the special power the Quiz 3 exemption gave was that that person would get to see three names of people who would get a green screen privately (we are not told who those three are) and must make a decision as to whether the termination should continue or not. Unusually for this sort of situation (although surely correct from a game perspective), they chose to continue the termination.
Yes/No Hunt (my title) – Two contestants are woken up early from the hotel and sent to “a safehouse”, they are given a phone with which they can take two picture massages which will go to the rest of the team. At breakfast, the team discover they have three hours to find the missing members for $10k. They are allowed 15 calls to the pair, but they are only 30 seconds long and they can only answer yes or no (breaking this rule costs $1k). The team are unaware of the call limits and rules, although the pair ARE aware and can fill them in if the team ask the right questions. The team are split into two, one car with the phone and a radio and some maps, the other with a GPS system and a radio.
For some reason to enter the elevator that takes the team up to the floor with the pair the team have to scan a barcode on one of the backpacks.
That’s it. A classic style Mole Challenge.
Pixels – Fun game, the team are split into two smaller teams and each have two hours to create pixel images using (what looks like) 6 by 6 inch bits of paper of various shades of black and white on billboards of famous Aussie celebs (each team gets a choice of four and a guide picture which they can use or ignore). The point being that if you look at it from a distance you should be able to make out features that wouldn’t be obvious standing close-up. Each team gets one guess at the what the other team has made, and a correct answer is worth $2,500.
It’s a bit odd having the test effectively halfway through an evening, the structure has really stuffed quite a lot up.
Counting the stairs would have been possible – the final stair was definitely a landing as opposed to just another step.
Aside from a couple of the US celebrity Mole games, Gutterball was definitely the worst challenge I can recall. And I’ve seen quite a few.
I can only assume the reason for the barcode scan was because those phones were product-placed (as were the cars in both challenges during the second hour), and they didn’t want viewers to think their phones always cut out after thirty seconds? I literally can’t think of another reason for that to be shown, let alone included in the challenge at all.
Wow, those pixellated pictures were terrible – as the players themselves pointed out repeatedly, with the example they got you could barely even tell they were human. They needed smaller squares for it to really work as a challenge, and even then it would still have been two hours of pointless busywork followed by a single quiz question for the money.
Ratings last night: 281,000 for the first hour, 239,000 for the second. While the first hour was against a major sporting event, there wasn’t a commercial break between the two hours, so the numbers would have dropped off much earlier than those numbers suggest. It’s almost at the point where we could have a sweepstakes to see how low it goes next week.
Yeah- putting anything up against a sports event isn’t the smartest thing, especially if the game is competitive as that one was (it’s available online for free here in the US, and I’ve always been a little interested in NRL and AFL). The question now is if they’ll air the rest of the season or not…and there was an article about TAR Australia possibly coming back in 2014- didn’t know it had won an International Emmy.
http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/07/should-seven-resume-the-amazing-race-australia.html
I’m convinced it’s Aisha now – she seems to be delighting in causing trouble, and has downright done moleish things that appeared to be mistakes (the speed reading banner comes to mind).
Apparently Seven’s website has already uploaded the shaded photos for when players are eliminated. Every player has one… except Nick, which suggests he’s either the winner or the Mole. Since he’s basically done nothing to sabotage anything aside from taking those sleeping mats, I’m going with him as the winner and (based on his joker trade) Shaun as the Mole. Which is… not as surprising as the editors were trying to make us think with his “they probably don’t suspect me, they should” rant last week.
Episodes 8 and 9 – Wednesday 24th July
Some good challenges this week, the team are currently nine in number:
Aeroplane Acrobatics – Team split into two groups – 4 mavericks and 5 wingmen. The mavericks will be in a plane and will be taken through a stunt which they will try and describe on the radio to their teammates in the hangar, who have been given a demonstration of the possible stunts but won’t be able to see them so must use the description for guidance. The five wingmen are further split into groups of two and three, each group trying to identify the stunts of two wingmen. In each subgroup, getting one correct is worth $2k, getting both correct is worth $5k, so with two groups the possible prize is $10k.
The Tram Game – The entire team each carry a briefcase with a mystery tag on them. Two people begin at the start of the tram’s journey, the others have been dropped off further along the tram’s route waiting for the tram to turn up. The two starting players open their mystery tags to find two places in Australia. Within one minute, they must determine which is further away from Melbourne as the crow flies and get on the tram – a warning bell sounds ten seconds before the tram departs and failure of anyone to get on costs $10k from the pot. At the next stop, that player must get off, compare cities with the next person and explain the rules of the challenge if necessary as the person waiting for the tram doesn’t actually know what the challenge is. If at the end of the line the person on the tram is holding the briefcase of the city that’s furthest from Melbourne, they win $10k, otherwise nothing.
I thought this was a great game – high tension geography quiz fused with Chinese Whispers.
Freebie Gamble – No money for this one, each player is given a freebie free of charge. Each player is then offered the chance to gamble that freebie to win three by predicting how many cards (1-3) Shura is holding in a box.
It struck me that the Aussie show is very freebie heavy isn’t it? Also is there any real reason why “they correct a wrong answer in a quiz” (which I reckon is quite viewer understanding unfriendly) couldn’t just be “is worth a bonus point in the quiz” which is effectively what they are? If that means you can score above twenty, does that really matter? That’s not limited to the Aussie show, that’s seemingly how all versions describe them.
Devil in the Detail – The team travel to a funfair where a large picture frame is set up. A sketch will play out in front of them. The actors will then repeat everything but with TEN differences. The team line up and each try and name a difference, each success is worth $2,500 for the pot for a possible $22,500 (or “over $20k” – thanks Shura), however if someone fails to give a new difference the challenge pot is reset. At the end, the amount of non-claimed differences is revealed, the team has 30 seconds to have a conference and can earn $1k for each of the missed differences they can name.
Pinata Zipline – The team individually pick baseball bats from a bin, each bat will have someone’s name on it. You go down a zipline where there are ten pinatas – the five on the right being game advantages (1, 2, 3 freebies, Exemption for Quiz 4, exemption for Quiz 5) and the ones on the right are money ($1k, $2.5k, $5k, $5k, $10k). The first pinata you smash will earn that prize for the player written on the bat (or if money for the pot). Hitting subsequent pinatas will eliminate them from play. First contestant has the bright idea of going for a game advantage for the person on the bat but then smashing all the other game advantage ones to stop anyone else form benefitting, his bat hilariously breaks after smashing the first one.
Then it’s Quiz 4.
Next week: ice hockey and that game with the smoke signals from Dutch Mole Iceland.
I’ve always been a little confused on the freebie rules as well:
-Do they do the quiz, then asked if they want to use them if they’re not sure on some questions?
-Do they say they want to use this many freebies on my test before they take it?
-I’m assuming they can get their score above 20, especially on the next to last quiz (since they can’t use them in the final quiz)
No idea why they don’t just say “a freebie is a bonus point”, but maybe they’re hoping putting the graphic up every time someone says the word will make it easier to understand. Because I know whenever someone starts speaking archaic Norwegian, it helps if they repeat the same thing over and over with no actual logical explanation.
My understanding is that they have to put the jokers they’re using on the table next to the laptop before starting the test.
I’m not sure how they managed to put five challenges and an elimination into a two-hour show with no overrun and STILL managed to make it feel slow, but they did. I suspect part of the problem was that the first four challenges were all basically quizzes in various disguises, and the zipline was a bad ripoff of the library challenge from a couple of episodes ago.
I wound up writing a follow-up to that blog post I did after the first episode, analysing why the show didn’t work. Link here (but winner/mole spoilers, because Seven are incompetent): http://www.realitytvdesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/a-tout-le-mole.html
Alex was not on my suspect list my 2 front runners Shaun and Hillal. Shaun keeps doing things to put money out of the game but his brash personality is making me doubt him.
Hillal has been a suspect since the beginning he has also kept a fair bit of money from the pot but at the same time is doing it with a lot less attention. If you were Moleing then i am sure you would be a lot more brash when doing it. This is partly why i i keep changing my mind about Shaun.
356,000 for the first hour. 279,000 for the second. It’s another massive drop, but it’s worth noting the first hour is the first time they’ve gained viewers on the previous episode, so… there’s that. I guess.
Only one hour this week. Not sure of the reasoning (in that there are so many reasons, I’m buggered if I can figure out which one in particular was used).
There’s a documentary about the AFL drugs scandal being hastily prepared for the 8:30 timeslot and pushing The Mole back to 10:15 in the southern states, so it could be that they didn’t want the show dragging on until after midnight.
We knew beforehand that they planned to cut down from three episodes a week to two, but have no idea when the cut was supposed to happen. If it was planned for after Week 4, this could be a way to ensure the eliminations only happen at the ends of the double episodes from next week onwards – this would have been a Tuesday episode, and then they can do the Wednesday/Thursday episodes next week before simply showing the two weekly episodes without any pacing issues beyond how slow it is.
Or it could just be that the double episodes aren’t working.
Well it looks like Aussie Mole took a week off from most of the major Aussie markets last night in a scheduling change, back next week apparently.
Apparently some markets did get the show, others didn’t because of a special news program- those who didn’t get the show will get a 2-hr show next week (this weeks and next weeks), while those where it did air will only get the one ep.
Ah ha, ta.
Crucially whoever has been capping it for the internet doesn’t seem to have it, and they’ve not posted any spoilers on the Aussie Mole site.
There was some stuff on the Wikipedia page about the games played, so it did air somewhere..
There are some links out there now for episode 10 ao here:
http://videobull.com/the-mole-au-season-6-episode-10/
It’s very sad that Seven has made such a complete mess of the programming by rescheduling over and over again and now even not airing at all in a large part of the country..
The show would have had a much better following and ratings if they had not done the silly 3-episodes a week- format (which doesn’t fit the Mole at all…) in the first place so it would have had a good pace, and a regular scheduling. If they had stuck with it, they would have had decent results I think because the show has become better over time imho. Sad, because now it will probably never come back to Australian TV thanks to Seven’s screw ups.. 🙁
Anyway.. still enjoying it for the most part (except for basically all the male contestants apart from Hillal.. :P). 😉
Mole got 156,000 last night despite airing only in Sydney and Brisbane.
Links for episode 10:
http://videobull.com/the-mole-au-season-6-episode-10/
THANK YOU!!
Welcome! 😀
Episodes 10 and 11 now up, feel free to discuss, will write challenges up tomorrow.
They’ve REALLY overplayed the freebie aspect, they should be hard fought rare bonuses not liberally rained down.
Also there’s apparently a contestant called Erin who had eluded me for the last nine episodes.
Similarly, exemptions are a lot less exciting when they’re constantly at risk of being taken away.
I completely agree Brig Bother.
It’s becoming completely futile and pointless at this stage at the rate they are handing them out and then taking them away again.. :-/
I quite enjoyed watching the challenges by themselves I just got fed up with the handing it out and then taking it away again. Exactly like you said, it just loses any kind of significance it has that way as it all seems random and meaningless that way.
It’s a shame because if used in the right circumstances (i.e. not overused and in a strategic and psychological game) they can be terrific assets to the show and creating a bit more tension for the tests. But the way this is going it’s just completely lost. Again they miss the mark. Such a shame because there is so much more potential if they had understood the significance of it in terms of psychological aspects of the Mole especially…
As for Erin, she’s been pretty much my main suspect for a while now. In fact I find it hard to see others as potential Moles though Nick is a possibility too still I guess. Shaun’s just a jerk and wannabe imho, if he is the Mole in the end, what a fail to give him the edit he got imho. 😛 I can’t see it. Can’t see any of the others either , they all seem to contestantlike for the most part. Erin seems to have insider info for sure, happily ‘earning’ an exemption just when there’s another ‘you need to pay up to keep it’ challenge around the corner, very coincidentally. 😛
Not saying I’m too chuffed if it turns out to be her but hey, at least I wouldn’t necessarily have to watch too much of Sam or Shaun anymore 😀
340,000 viewers last night.
Wow, that archery bit was pointless. One shot each, and the closest wins an exemption? I know they had to find ways to get three players with exemptions for the paintball, but zzzzz. The rest wasn’t great either, but it was nice to see it being somewhat fast.
Although we did get someone (wasn’t paying much attention) saying “I have three freebies now, and if I win three more, then I *might* have six freebies?”. Not sure how they’ve made it this far.
lol.. 😀
Probably due to the fact that the executees 2 and 4 went all out on their suspect – which is a pretty arrogant and dumb thing to do this early in the game imho.
Not sure if that applies to Linda too, but I think based on her (rare) confessionals she was completely off track too.
I agree that the freebie/exemption situation is getting rediculous though.
It’s moving to 10:30pm on Wednesdays now!
But wait, there’s Mole! (To complain about, I mean.) http://realitytvdesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/but-wait-theres-mole.html
Just went through the advance guides at TV Tonight to read the descriptions for the next few episodes. Not updated for the latest timeslot change, and if we’re back to one-a-week these won’t be consecutive episodes (they’re all listed as doubles in the 9:30 slot) but:
“The contestants meet at Sydney’s National Art School for a mind-boggling game of Domino Effect. Then just like the dominoes, one contestant will fall in a termination as eight contestants become seven. Hosted by SHURA TAFT.”
“The contestants meet Shura on the famous stretch of sand on the Gold Coast in Queensland. They will battle it out in ‘Mole Lifesaver’, inspired by the Gold Coast’s iconic surf lifesavers. After their exercise-laden challenge, they play a life-sized version of the classic computer game Minesweeper. Then, from the beach to the school library: the contestants meet for a school exam, where correct answers will boost the cash prize pool. Hosted by SHURA TAFT.”
“The Gold Coast is full of life’s high Rollers and the group meets at the Peppers Broadbeach Skyhome for the highstakes gambling game of ‘Let It Ride’. Shura will deal a card from the pack, and the contestant can choose to hold it and walk away, or keep on getting Shura to deal cards – but they risk losing it all if a red Mole thumbprint card is dealt. Then, the contestants play the most devastatingly psychological game yet – ‘Silent Auction’. Hosted by SHURA TAFT.”
The least awful sounding one is the Minesweeper game, but even then… yeesh.
Hmmz ‘Silent Auction’ might be similar to what they did in S7 on the Dutch Mole.
To be honest that was one of my least favourite twists of our own series – but judging by how they have been handing out exemptions and freebies like hot cakes all the time, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was similar – or worse. 🙁
I agree with you that they don’t sound exciting as far as Mole challenges go. Still hoping it will be entertaining enough to watch – but the preview alluded to more arguments so, not looking so good in that sense either.
Just seeing the results on the Wiki page makes me dread watching this episode- though the fact that a challenge result depended on the Mole getting predictions wrong is an interesting change of pace. I read your blog entry, and I totally agree that if it ends up being near $250K won, it doesn’t look like there was any major sabotage. If they had said possibly $500K, then that makes more sense (IIRC, based on past seasons worldwide it looks like 50-65% of the theoretical maximum is what they shoot for anyway)
I think it was the same as the challenge they did in the Dutch show last year, with the Mole betting against the contestants.
I’m not going to lie, I thought the episode had a good result. I’m on Team Hillal/Ally. I think David (AU) pointed out that it’s going to be four weeks until the next elimination which is awful, as was having to buy the exemptions you’d already earned.
Episode 12-13 doesn’t seem to have turned up anywhere yet.
I said from ep 1 “I fear if they’re saying “they’re playing for $250k total” but they’re already giving away the chance at around $50k by the first test, it’s quite likely they mean “the prize pot will be end up being around $250,000″. I hope not though.” It’s a bit poor really. I note in the Dutch show they don’t give a possible figure so the producers have outs but will occasionally total up the amount they’ve missed out on, which is a far cleverer way to do it even if it means they don’t have a topline figure (which everyone will have worked out is around €20-25k).
Yeah, I like the “if you’re doing well, challenges are worth less, if you suck, we add money to them and tell the Mole to take it easy” approach much more. And it would have made the cheapness of that domino challenge ($3000, really?) more tolerable.
Current prize total, counting only the challenges where the max prize was preset and calculable, is $278,500. There’s also been quite a few open-ended ones (jetboat, gutters, raft, and I’d count the matchstick puzzle more in this category than as a preset prize challenge) which would add even more to the possible winnings.
It was quite something in the Dutch show when about half way through Art suddenly came out with “if you’d have won all the challenges, you’d have €87k in the pot” – a very easy way to control the money and make it look like the mole has been doing lots of moves.
An incredible FOUR challenges in Episode 13, and some pot drama, although it’s a shame they made the exam challenge a bit easy, the wrinkle that they had to gamble on not losing all their players in the Dutch show was quite fun.
It’s easier to fit four challenges in when two of them are ‘run over there’, and the third one doesn’t require setting up a new location.
Every week I find myself wondering ‘it can’t get any worse, surely’. And every week, I am proven wrong.
I don’t see how ‘run over there’ should or could be a Mole challenge either. It seemed silly – if there had been some kind of mental challenge combined to it as well at least that would have made it more interesting. Now it was simply a race, therefore quite unfair to the female contestants too (and the less fit men) because they never really stood a chance. Again, an exemption is won easily only then to be ‘defended’…
Here’s a thought: Just make winning one less easy and let them keep it once won – also, make it so that some others actually stand a chance of winning it..
Wasn’t too enamoured with episode 13 either – I liked the school challenge in S10, but all these questions really seemed fairly simple. The Mine-sweep was also quite simple to do, and almost impossible to sabotage anyway, when at least one person knows or understands it.
It seemed pretty obvious that they want Aisha to be looking suspicious, and Sam/Hillal too for some reason. Probably just because they are sticking around for a bit more. Still thinking it’s Erin though and nothing in the last few episodes has made me think otherwise, in fact I only see confirmation.
I am wondering if they are condensing episodes a little bit- because if they were going one elimination about every 3 eps that means they’d still have about 10-12 eps left, and I don’t the network wants to have it on that long…
I did idly wonder if the intention was to have an entire episode set on the beach but they’re choosing to condense a little.
Intention was always to cut down from three episodes a week to two after Episode 12. Since that was Episode 13, it seems it was always planned like that.
I’m sorry if this is being slightly negative, but really I want some of these contestants (Sam and Shaun especially but I’m not that keen on Nick either and now even Hillal seems to start acting like a toddler too sometimes, out of spite – not that I blame him much being forced to live with these clowns for three weeks now..) off my screen so badly it’s not even funny anymore.. 🙁
I’m not even sure I can face another episode watching the faces Sam pulls in his smug self-contentedness (I doubt I ever saw anyone as enamoured with himself as he seems to be – or is this merely production making them do this?? I am betting not, even though they do seem to enable and even incite that kind of behaviour…). Wow this guy is 22 yo, he needs a SEVERE reality check I think. Badly.
I hate that I am feeling that way and thinking like that because I want to be focussing on the MOLE hunt not on all that trivial side stuff, arguments and freebies etc. Makes me think they created a side-show just to detract from the fact that there is so little actual sabotage going on, and what is has been blatant basically. I don’t know, sorry if I do sound disappointed but at this point I am not even sure I want to keep on watching which is a point I never thought I would find myself at to be honest. :-/
I will I think probably out of sheer stamina to find out what happened – and there are still a couple of things I like. But honestly the things I don’t like or detest even (sorry :() are starting to gain on those by now. I hope I can sit through the whole series because I want to know how this ends. But I wish they would start making this about the MOLE already and not all the sidekicks trying to create drama on the side.. 🙁
Thought it was a fairly fun episode tonight, although the card game bit at the beginning went on a bit. And then another card game for the second challenge.
Can’t believe they left the aftermath of the finding money in the cupboard thing right there.
I got copies of the next six episodes (up until the final four elimination) last night, and… it comes into play next week. Also, of all things, the long-forgotten Aisha and Mozzie love story they were trying to push gets referenced later in the season.
But the most important thing? The first challenge next week is the last chance players will have to win freebies or exemptions (though there are some smaller, stupider rewards later on). Thank frak for that.
I’ve loved every version of the Mole I’ve ever seen, but I’m just about ready to tear my hair out with the Aussie Mole! It’s as is they deliberately picked the most unlikeable set of people ever to play. Sam and Hillal are particularly smug and it doesn’t come across as fun to watch its just toe-curling.
And for goodness sake… Surely if you give someone an exemption then that’s what it should be, rather than just taken off the, 5 minutes later! The whole first part of the episode with the card game turned out to be a waste of time as Erin and Nick lost their exemptions in the next bit anyway! Pointless!
Totally agree KitG, a complete waste of time – which could have been spent by the Mole actually sabotaging or us watching an interesting challenge instead.
This whole ‘get an exemption easily then defend it’ is just filler and stupid imho (sorry if that sounds harsh but yes, that is how I feel about it :(…)
I can watch the episodes as ‘mildly entertaining’ now if I manage to ignore certain people and talking (up-themselves-to-no-end) heads. But I have to confess my patience is wearing very thin with some people, especially the remaining male contestants. Nick being in the middle though I can’t say I like him that much either. 🙁
I hate it when my attention is focussed on that instead of the Mole and what they did. What have we really seen or heard in terms of suspicions anyway?? Seriously is anyone really playing this game at all anymore, i.e. what it is about instead of ego-clashes and what not???
I definitely hope things will improve after the auction then, even though I was never keen on that twist on the Dutch Mole tbh, and I imagine it will have an even more devastating effect here. It makes no sense to me to introduce it this late in the game either because it makes everything that’s been done before feel pretty pointless. But then -admittedly – I am not a big fan of these twists where a LOT of money gets wasted for stupid reasons. So yeah. Some twists are better than others as we learned the hard way (imho)…
(Still this twist took place relatively early on the Dutch original series so they could make up for it.. I wonder how it will go down here after about what, a month?? into the game…)
I’d bet money Sam will be given the chance to sell his Ultimate Exemption back for at least the $70K he paid for it- he’s likely the mole, and was told to bid the maximum so the money would be taken out- It’s a reverse situation like when on another season they did an elimination, but were offered $50K added to the pot to bring the person back- only one person had to agree to do this, and they filmed the mole saying yes if no one else said yes, and no if someone else said yes. Later on they fake eliminated the mole, and told the others that person was given a chance to come back if they would take $50K out of the pot, which obviously was agreed to (so it was a net zero).
I thought that, but would they call back to a previous season so blatently?
The auction was hilarious and wrong on so many levels.
I can confirm Sam doesn’t get the chance to sell his Ultimate Exemption back. The other prizes offered during the auction, on the other hand…
I’m wondering now if the final pot is going to reach 6 figures with that tidbit, which would be awfully cheap…
Yes, it does. Can’t recall the exact figure, but they’re going to be drastically over-inflating the value of some of the upcoming challenges. (In fact, if memory serves they end up back at about $55K tonight alone.)
Oh man, not Ally 🙁
Some rather amateur mistakes in the clock graphics this evening.
I think I’m coming to the conclusion David was right all along and Shaun is The Mole. I’m in two minds about this – first that it’s a shame he’s been so obvious, second that you certainly couldn’t accuse him of sitting quietly in the background and letting everyone else do all the work. If it does turn out to be someone else, I hope there’s a good “what they did” video package.
Do we know if there’s a what the Mole did reunion show for this series? I know the Aussie version tended to shy away from it after the first series.
In other news, this has been going on for over two and a half months now.
I heard they had scrapped it when they moved the show back to once a week, and will just add some footage on what/how on the finale ep.
Yeah, I’ve also heard they planned a separate reunion but scrapped the idea once the show failed.
The irony is that while you’re thinking it’s Shaun, I’m totally thinking it’s Erin now. Which would be nearly as bad – they’re so obviously trying to make her Not The Mole (when everyone else has been discussed) that it’s completely clear she actually is. And it doesn’t help that she’s such a terrible actress. I don’t think I’ve seen a less convincing Mole ever.
At least the pot is back up to a reasonable level- the catapult game seemed to be designed to do that.
OOH at result.
Surprising execution but I’m convinced Ayisha is the mole now
The bowls was quite funny.
Edit: WOWSERS, I’m fascinated by Shaun’s story. I expect he’s not quite the twat the edit suggested, but he was quite clearly Moling for the fun of it throughout and overtly.
And next week they’re playing Go Fish like they did in the Dutch show. Amazing.
I find it funny that the theoretical possible winnings look like it’ll be over a million, and the winner is going to be lucky to get $150K or so…
It does make the quarter million bandied around look completely random.
There’s no way anyone but Aisha’s the mole now – they’ve given us far too many clues, like “Oh, Aisha leaves her mole diary out in the open – it’s as if she DOESN’T CARE CAUSE SHE’S THE MOLE” and “Aisha “accidentally” breaks the same rule she told Shaun off for three times in a minute”. I’ll be very surprised if she’s not. As much as I hate to say it, Erin’s probably the winner – winners tend to be those closest to the mole.