The respected ABC reality series The Mole may be gone, but it will live on in the record books as a 2004 Emmy winner.
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The final edition of the show, Celebrity Mole: Yucatan (also known among Mole aficionados as The Mole 4), received an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement for Enhanced Television in the "creative arts" portion of the 2004 Primetime Emmy ceremonies.
The award, part of the "interactive television" awards, is given to television programs that have been enhanced with interactive content. Voting for this "area award" (which means, in part, that an award in the category is not required to be given out if a majority of the jury does not agree on a winner) is performed by a jury selected from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Interactive Peer Group.
In winning, Celebrity Mole: Yucatan defeated CSI: Miami Interactive (CBS), The View: His/Her Body Test (ABC), NFL Sunday Game Tracker (DirecTV), 2004 TV Land Awards (TV Land), Jetix Cards Live! (ABC Family / Toon Disney), PitCommand Quals (Turner Sports), and Ride Along Video Application (Speed Channel).
The Emmy was presented to interactive producers ABC Enhanced Television and Zetools. In a press release on its Web site, Zetools notes that the interactive content for Celebrity Mole: Yucatan, which was won by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, was the first to use the Windows XP Media Center Edition PC platform, which allowed viewers to watch TV and interact with the broadcast on a single screen. In addition, the interactive content also ran on ABC's proprietary "two-screen" platform.
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We applaud ABC, Zetools and Celebrity Mole: Yucatan for breaking new ground on the interactive front, and we note that The Mole, in which both the audience and the contestants are trying to identify "the mole," is a perfect game for an interactive platform. Unfortunately, right now it appears that this award may represent the final new ground ever broken by a U.S. version of The Mole.