Geez what a difference a non-Friday night timeslot and a good lead-in can make. After pulling last season's "Mole 2" off the Frinday night Fall 2001 schedule after only three episodes and watching the series rebound when the series was later run on Wednesday evenings in Summer 2002, ABC reports that its "Celebrity Mole Hawaii" program debuted to strong numbers and delivered the network's best young adult audience retention this season for a series coming out of "The Bachelor" franchise. The celebrity whodunit program drew an average audience of 10.8 million viewers and notched a 5.3 rating, 14 share among Adults 18-49, placing second to NBC's "Law & Order" on both counts.
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"The Mole" virtually matched "Law & Order's" delivery among Adults 18-34 (5.1/15 vs. 5.3/16) and defeated the veteran drama by 86% in Teens 12-17 (4.1/16 vs. 2.2/9). "Celebrity Mole" qualified as the third-highest rated program on Wednesday night in Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49, behind only "The Bachelorette" and "Law & Order."
"Celebrity Mole Hawaii" drew ABC's largest audience with a series in the hour in more than 1 year (since 12/5/01) and posted the Net's highest Adult 18-34 and Adult 18-49 ratings in the time slot with a series in over 2-1/2 years (since 5/24/00). The series premiere also pulled in the strongest viewer and young adult numbers for the franchise since the season finale of "The Mole I" (2/28/01).