the mole

• At 8, ABC has a new reunion episode of The Bachelor, then two new episodes of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, followed by new episodes of Nashville Star and Dateline.
• TCM has a new Under The Influence with Bill Murray, followed by A Night at the Opera.
• At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
• There's a new Monday Night RAW on USA at 9.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• Also at 9: TNT has the season premiere of The Closer, then the season premiere of Saving Grace.
• At 10, ABC Family has a new Middleman.
• E! has a new episode of The Soup at 10.
• MTV has a new Legally Blonde at 10.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

The summer of 2000 started out to be a typical one for television: repeats, theatrical movies edited for television, repeats, shows that needed to be burned off because they were so bad, and repeats. It was a formula that hadn't really changed for the Big Three networks in several years. And, it was one that viewers had gotten used to as they mourned the last episode of their favorite series and waited with eagerness for the new season to begin in September.

Then, something happened. CBS decided to air a 'game show' about a group of strangers stranded on a tropical island. Survivor began at the end of May and continued into the end of August. Along the way it gained more and more fans and produced more and more publicity for both the show and the network. By the last episode, on August 23rd, Survivor had become a huge success as well as one of the highest rated original shows ever to air in the summer.

Little did CBS know that this summer replacement show would begin the Reality Revolution and change the landscape of network television forever more.

%Gallery-24100%

(S05E05) Nicole said something interesting tonight, right at the top of the show. "Why is that everyone I pick as the Mole gets executed and I don't?" That's a good question, because you would think that if Nicole is truly concentrating on one person every time she takes the quiz that she would have been eliminated by now. Maybe she's The Mole! Of course, we can make that case for every single one of the remaining contestants at one point or another. Well, except for the one that was executed tonight, the player that a lot of viewers picked because this person was rather quiet and flew under the radar. Just goes to show you that you really can't predict who's going to get kicked off the show.

• At 8, ABC has two new episodes of The Bachelorette, followed by a new episode of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators, then a new, two hour Nashville Star.
• USA has the U.S. Olympic Trials at 8, then a new Monday Night RAW.
• At 9, PBS has a new History Detectives.
• Food Network has a new Unwrapped at 9, about cereal.
• There's a new World Poker Tour on GSN at 9.
• VH-1 has A Concert For Nelson Mandela at 9.
• At 10, ABC Family has a new episode of The Middleman.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10, followed by a new Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
• Food Network has a new Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives at 10.
• E! has a new The Soup Presents at 10.
• Also at 10: MTV has a new Legally Blonde.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S05E04) "In my everyday life, the only place I hike to is Bloomingdale's." - Nicole

Wow, I think a lot of people lost their Mole pools tonight.

But before we get to that, let's talk about those journals. I think tonight showed that, if the rules allow it (though Nicole is always bending the rules), players on this reality show should make duplicate copies of what they write in their journals. Or tear out important pages and stuff them down your sock or something. To some players, the journals are more of a pain because there's too much info and they'd rather keep it in their head. To others, the journals are their lifelines in this game, and those players were probably very stunned tonight.

• At 8, ABC has a new episode of The Bachelorette, followed by a new episode of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, then a new Nashville Star.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 8.
• ABC Family has a new episode of The Middleman at 8.
• There's a new Good Eats on Food Network at 8.
• History Channel has a new Modern Marvels at 8.
• Also at 8: TCM has the Harold Lloyd movie Movie Crazy.
• At 9, GSN has a new World Poker Tour.
• At 10, Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
• MTV has a new Legally Blonde at 10.
• VH-1 has a new I Love The Millennium at 10.
• Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S05E03) "There isn't a single person in Santiago my size." - overweight Craig, walking around in his underwear

So tonight I decided that instead of just looking at all of the players equally to see if they were the Mole, I would focus on the two players that I have narrowed it down to (I know, a little early, but you have to start looking early). So I paid attention to everything that Mark and Victoria said, did, ate, wore, and didn't do. And you know what? I'm as lost as I was in the opening scene of the first episode. OK, not that confused, because after tonight's third person was eliminated, I guess mathematically I have a better idea of who the Mole is or isn't. But I know that it's not easy to figure this out.

I also know that I don't want to see Craig walking around in his underwear ever again.

• At 8, ABC has two new episodes of The Bachelorette, then a new episode of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, followed by new episodes of Nashville Star and Dateline.
• ABC Family has the series premiere of The Middleman at 8 (repeated at 9).
• At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
• Lifetime has the movie The Memory Keeper's Daughter at 9.
• Food Network has a new Unwrapped at 9.
• At 9:45, HBO has a First Look at the Get Smart movie.
• At 10, Showtime has the season premiere of Weeds, then the series debut of Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S05E02) "I'll kill you in your sleep...I can do it and not leave any forensic evidence." - Nicole, to Paul

Uh...wow. That's one of the more provocative statements made in the history of The Mole. Of course, if this show was on CBS Nicole would have said, "...I can do it and not leave any forensic evidence and even the CSI: Miami team wouldn't be able to prove I did it." The funny thing is, Nicole wasn't totally out of line in saying it. Just when you think Nicole was the "evil" one on this reality show, another strong contender shows up: Paul. I don't know which one I'd rather talk to less, though Paul pulled ahead of Nicole tonight in many ways.

• At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour Bachelorette, then a new episode of The Mole.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, followed by the two hour season premiere of Nashville Star.
• CBS has an episode of The Bill Engvall Show at 8.
• Food Network has a new Good Eats at 8, then new episodes of Heavyweights and Unwrapped.
• ABC Family has a new Greek at 8.
• Also at 8: History Channel has a new Modern Marvels.
• At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie Charlie & Me at 9.
• At 10, MTV has a new Legally Blonde.

Check your local TV listings for more.

It's only the first episode, but people seem to be avoiding ABC's new edition of The Mole like it was on The CW or something.

The first episode of the show this past Monday at 10pm got a 1.9 rating in the important 18 to 49 demographic. It came in third place in the time slot and lost a lot of the lead-in from The Bachelorette.

I don't understand why viewers don't make this one of the top reality shows on television. I mean, if you love reality television, why don't you watch this show? Is it the time slot? Is it the fact that you have to figure things out on the show yourself? I think this is actually one of the most interesting parts of the show, that it's actually a reality show that you can actually play along with. You don't get that with The Bachelorette or Survivor. It's actually a reality show mixed with a mystery/spy series. It's a TV mystery series, where viewers have to guess who the bad guy is, mixed with a reality competition series. And it has great music and great Amazing Race-like stunts and worldwide locales and is immensely entertaining. Why aren't more people, especially people who watch reality shows, watching The Mole?

(S05E01) "What's wrong with being smart and gorgeous at the same time?" - Nicole

Oh, it's so good to have The Mole back on the air.

I realized how much I loved the show the minute I heard the first notes of the theme song (at least I think it's the same as before) and the opening scenes. I haven't seen any full episodes since the last Anderson Cooper episode in season two (the celeb editions didn't interest me at all), but all of the good feelings I had about how entertaining the show was came flooding back.

But how did the rest of the episode hold up?

• At 8, ABC has a new episode of The Bachelorette, then the season premiere of The Mole.
• NBC has the Red Wings/Penguins Stanley Cup Game at 8.
• TCM has Sydney Pollack movies starting at 8: The Slender Thread and Three Days of the Condor.
• At 9, Lifetime has the new movie The Capture of the Green River Killer.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• Discovery has a new Dirty Jobs at 9, followed by a new Verminators.
• GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• G4 Rewind debuts at 9 on G4.
• Also at 9: TV Land has a Mad About You marathon.
• At 10, VH-1 has the series premiere of Legally Blonde: The Search For Elle Woods.

Check your local TV listings for more.

So here we are at the end of another television season. We're all exhausted from watching all of the finales, whether it was American Idol or The Office or Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives (there's still one biggie left to come next week: Lost!), and we're ready to take the summer off and enjoy cheeseburgers and the beach and fireworks and road trips, making sure we don't turn on our televisions unless it's for the news or maybe some daily soaps.

Of course, television doesn't really work that way anymore. There is no complete summer hiatus on the networks anymore. They all have reality shows and new scripted shows too, both network and cable. Here are the four shows that I'm most looking forward to watching this summer, and - God help me - there's one reality show in the mix.

The Mole will be back for its new season on Monday June 2nd at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. The show, based on the Belgian hit and hosted by Jon Kelley, follows a group of competitors as they try to uncover who is the saboteur among them. Each week contestants have to learn as much as they can about "the mole" and whoever knows the least is "executed" at the end of the hour. During the season finale, the mole is revealed and one of the final two competitors wins a cash prize. This summer, the series will feature all new missions, locations and music as well as online and mobile interactivity.

ABC announced the final four cast members on Friday:

Liz: Age 60, Retired, from Whitefish, MT
Marcie: Age 31, Stay-at-home mom, from Corona, CA (pictured to the left)
Alex: Age 31, Musician, from Haverford, PA
Craig: Age 30, Graphic Designer, San Diego, CA

Click here for a full list of The Mole's cast.