The Mole - Series One

Welcome to The Mole: this series is about trust.

– Presenter Mark Ferguson opens the show

The programme has turned into a serious mole-hunt, with [Mark] Ferguson overseeing proceedings like a mean father. His low-key approach and easy rapport with the team, and the camera, hides a devious underbelly ... It has to be said The Mole is at times a sadistic social experiment.

– Fiona Rae reviews The Mole in The NZ Herald, 30 June 2000

I need three people to come with me who aren't afraid of facing death.

– Host Mark Ferguson introduces a murder mystery challenge, in episode two

The ten people you're about to meet don't know each other, but they're going to have to learn to work together as a team. Because over the coming weeks, we're going subject them to a series of tests that just might push them to their limits. To succeed, they're going to have to learn to trust each other. But that won't be easy, because one of them, planted by us, doesn't want them to succeed. That person is the mole.

– Presenter Mark Ferguson introduces the show

It's time to leave them to relax and talk amongst themselves. They think they're alone, but what they don't know is that we've placed a hidden camera in the room: everything they say and do is being recorded.

– Presenter Mark Ferguson, late in episode one

If I can get through this whole thing without having to stoop to that kind of double crossing, I'm a better person for it.

– Contestant Cath Vause, describing a paint battle in episode six

The mood in the group is slowly changing; friendship and cooperation have been replaced by mistrust and paranoia. Many of the group are acting suspiciousl. Of course that's just what the mole likes to see.

– Presenter Mark Ferguson, in episode six

...you can't say we don't know how to get the adrenaline pumping on this show.

– Presenter Mark Ferguson, early in episode two

We're going to give you a series of tests, both physical and mental. If you pass a test, we give you some money, and that money can jackpot to over $30,000. That's the good news. The bad news is at the end of every episode one person will be eliminated...

– Presenter Mark Ferguson tells the contestants how the show works, early in episode one

Self-confidence is seemingly in short supply amongst our competitors. There's little of the braggadocio associated with modern-day reality shows...

– Critic James Croot looks back on the first episode, Stuff, 12 October 2022

While audiences watched the show in droves, critics and columnists were less-than-kind.

– Critic James Croot looks back on the show, Stuff, 12 October 2022

Remember The Mole? It was like Big Brother meets Top Town meets the board game Cluedo ... Someone in the show had been planted by producers to subtly sabotage their efforts. Based on a Belgian show that was remade in 40 different countries, the Kiwi version was fronted by Mark Ferguson's eyebrows, which he'd aim at the camera and arch every time a supposedly dubious comment or action was made by a potential 'mole'.

– NZ Herald writer Chris Schulz sums up The Mole, in a 25 October 2018 opinion piece on New Zealand's worst reality TV shows

Even the host did not know who the saboteur was until the end, and the film crew who had run a sweep were all wrong.

– Writer Louisa Cleave in an article about The Mole, The NZ Herald, date unknown

We're definitely more on the side of the contestants. The Aussie one was quite nasty. It's good to see genuine people under real pressure. Very quickly they forget the camera is there.

– Host Mark Ferguson compares different versions of the show, The NZ Herald, date unknown