The Mole is an American reality game show originally broadcast on ABC from 2001 to 2008, and reintroduced on Netflix in 2022.

It is based on other versions of the original Belgian TV series De Mol broadcast in many countries.

Netflix picked up the show after a fourteen-year hiatus, with their iterations produced by Eureka Productions.

The series is a reality competition in which the contestants work as a group to add money to a pot that only one of them will eventually win.

Among the contestants is one person who has secretly been designated "the Mole" by the producers, tasked with sabotaging the group's money-making efforts.

At the end of each episode, the contestant who knows the least about the mole, as determined by the results of a multiple-choice quiz, is eliminated from the game.

The contestants typically meet for the first time at or shortly before the start of filming, just before their first task.

In those cases, perhaps only selected contestants are informed of the full nature of the challenge, and must work towards a different goal than the rest.

A common requirement is for the team to divide themselves into groups based on given attributes (e.g., "leaders" & "followers," "smart" & "dumb") before they learn what the task is.

In addition to challenges, violations of the game's rules by a player during certain seasons, such as going out after curfew or talking about a forbidden topic, can result in a deduction from the group pot as a penalty.

The player who scores the lowest on the quiz is eliminated from the game ("executed", in the ABC iteration).

The players who survive execution are not given their quiz scores or any additional information about the quizzes, and must deduce for themselves how well they are doing.

An exempt contestant receives immunity from the upcoming elimination, and advances to the next episode without being subject to the results of the quiz.

Exemptions are highly coveted, and oftentimes create friction and dissention inside the group.

In some cases, the exemption is a secret element of a mission, revealed only to the player(s) eligible.

A player(s) may find themselves surprisingly eligible to receive an exemption by committing a simple, innocuous act such as being the last person to leave the breakfast table or eating the last piece of pie at dessert.

The latter of these techniques for being noticed is in reference to the successful revival of the television drama Jericho on CBS by bombarding their offices with packages of peanuts.

On May 3, 2021, BuzzerBlog posted an article seeming to confirm that a show known as The Insider on casting sites is likely a new season of The Mole filming in Australia in June and July 2021.