The Mole (U.S. Season 2)

The Mole (U.S. Season 2)

The Mole: The Next Betrayal (also referred to as Mole 2: The Next Betrayal, and simply Mole 2) was the second season of the American version of The Mole produced by Stone Stanley Entertainment. The second season featured a team of 14 players, one of whom was the Mole.

The season debuted in September 2001 on Friday nights on ABC. However, after three weeks, it was put on hiatus, with disappointing ratings in the wake of 9/11 and the Friday night death slot to blame. The producers later admitted that airing the program on Fridays was "a big mistake." The show returned in June 2002, restarting from the beginning, as a summer replacement series on Tuesdays.

Anderson Cooper returned to host, and often had a playful rapport with the contestants. In one episode, he tricked the players into thinking that there was an extra execution and taunted them after revealing the truth; in another, the contestants decided to throw him into a river following a task as a joke. In one of the games he apparently became slightly inebriated after drinking large quantities of wine with two of the players. As it had been in the first season, Cooper was unaware of the Mole's identity. On the final day of filming, he accidentally learned the identity of the Mole when he overheard a conversation by the producers.

During its summer 2002 run, Mole 2 aired opposite the first season of American Idol. Its ratings were considered a success, and thus two celebrity editions of the show were created. The Mole returned in the summer of 2008 with a third season of non-celebrity contestants, and a fifth season overall.

In 2007, Bill McDaniel, the Mole, published a book documenting the experience.

Read more about The Mole (U.S. Season 2):  Show Details, Contestants, Execution Chart, Mole Sabotage, Hidden Clues

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