The Mole (Australia season 3)
| The Mole (Australia season 3) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Australia |
| No. of episodes | 11, including a crossover episode with The Weakest Link |
| Release | |
| Original network | Seven Network |
| Original release | 20 February – 24 April 2002 |
| Season chronology | |
The third season of the Australian version of The Mole took place mostly in Gold Coast, Queensland and was hosted by Grant Bowler.
This season was similar to the previous Australian seasons of The Mole. A twist introduced this season is that not all assignments are assessed on a pass/fail scheme. In previous seasons a $10,000 assignment resulted in the team adding $10,000 to the pot, or failing, and adding none. In this season depending on the level of the team's success, they may win a portion of the prize, i.e. $4,000. It had an announced maximum prize to be won of $300,000, with the absolute maximum considerably more than that. The main difference was that it had a larger cast, twelve players rather than ten, and as such, two additional rounds of play. A notable and unique assignment in this season occurred during the fourth round of gameplay, and involved the players being blindfolded and taken to the set of The Weakest Link, with all money won added to the group kitty and the winner of the game given a free pass through to the next round. Filming took place throughout January and February in 2002, including the Weakest Link special episode. This season coincided with the Nine's 2002 edition of Australian Survivor (which aired an hour later on Nine) and produced poor ratings, leading to rumours the show would be cancelled.
Due to the series being based on the Gold Coast, no contestants from Queensland were considered. Instead, contestants from New South Wales (seven), South Australia (one) and Victoria (four) were picked. At the time of the airing of this season, seven contestants were under the age of 30, making this group one of the youngest groups on the Australian version of The Mole. These are the twelve contestants who were on the show:
† Ann-Maree Weaver passed away on 6 January 2013 aged 72.
Rescue Jump: After meeting for the first time on board a large boat, the players were told to don wetsuits and prepare for their first assignment, for $10,000, which was to board a helicopter and simulate a rescue jump into the ocean, from 10 meters in height. The players went up in the helicopter in pairs, and although a few of them were frightened, particularly Thao, all of them jumped and the money was won.
...
Wikipedia