E! Online featured a story this afternoon that contains more details about the plans for a second season of The Mole and some details that illustrate why, given it's demographic ratings and the looming fall Hollywood writers strike, bringing back The Mole was a no-brainer.
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"While The Mole hasn't scored the same ratings success as CBS' smash Survivor or Fox's Temptation Island, it has been a solid performer, drawing an average of 12.5 million viewers during its 8 p.m. Tuesdays slot. Since its January 9 debut, it has also become the Alphabet Net's most watched show among adults 18-34 this season. "
"'In this environment, it's been kind of difficult because the expectations have been for [reality shows] to do 15 or 30 shares, but we're very pleased with the viewership of The Mole,' Andrea Wong, ABC's senior v.p. for alternative series and specials, told the Hollywood Reporter. 'We think it has even more potential in its second season.'"
Among the news of note released by producers Scott Stone and David Stanley:
- host Anderson Cooper will definitely be back
- some finetuning will be required now that The Mole has been expanded from this season's nine episodes to 13
- given the additional episodes, there will be more players than in the first series (just as we speculated in our initial report of the 2nd season)
"We'll start with more people obviously," says Stone. "[And] we intend to spend a little more time on the personal stories and a little less on the game aspect. We're expecting we'll have a lot more intrigue as to how the players play the game."
Stone says that since the home audience already knows the basics of The Mole, a second season will allow producers to focus less on lengthy explanations of the game's rules, and more on entertaining the viewers.
"There's a huge learning curve on the show," noted Stone. "Our intention is to simplify and gratify."
...the season series of The Mole is being targeted for a fall 2001 premiere, NO, we DO NOT KNOW how you can apply to be on the second series, when we do, we'll post a news update.
Source: E! Online