The fourth season of the Australian version of The Mole, subtitled The Mole in Paradise, took place mostly in New Caledonia and was hosted by Grant Bowler.
Show Details This season had a higher announced maximum kitty than previous seasons, touting the maximum amount to be won to be $500,000. However, the final total in the group kitty was comparable with that of previous seasons, at $104,000. The first episode of this season took place in Sydney, with the host revealing during the elimination that nine of them, minus the player who was to be eliminated, would head to New Caledonia for the remainder of the season.
This season almost did not go ahead due to poor ratings attained from the previous season. This showed with the fourth series being aired later on in the year. Unlike in previous seasons where the show was given a PG rating, this season was given a G rating. Additionally, the show screened on Sunday nights rather than the previous timeslot of Wednesday nights, partly due to its unpopularity in its previous timeslot, and the entire series was aired throughout July to September 2003. Filming took place during May to June in 2003.
Casting was handled by newspaper advertisements. Thousands of individuals responded, and these ten were the ones that were chosen:
PlayerAgeHometownOccupationOutcomeStace Callaghan32Brisbane, QueenslandMasseuse9th PlaceGreg Harding54Craigieburn, VictoriaManager8th Place Josh Kennedy-White34Elizabeth Bay, New South WalesPublic relations7th PlaceNikki Hosking19Avalon, New South WalesCheerleader6th PlaceKrissy Stanley53Oyster Bay, New South WalesSales representative5th PlaceAlison Lyford-Pike24Brighton, VictoriaMusician4th PlaceCam Villani26Blackburn, VictoriaFirefighter3rd PlaceNathan Beves22Cronulla, New South WalesStevedoreRunner-upPetrina Edge24Petersham, New South WalesSales assistantThe MoleShaun Faulkner22Barraba, New South WalesSecurity guardWinner
Elimination Chart +Elimination ChartPlayer12345678910ShaunININININININININWINNERPetrinaININININOUTININININMOLENathanINININININININININRUNNER-UPCamININOUTINININININOUT AlisonINININININININOUTKrisININININININOUTNikkiINININININOUTJoshINININOUTGregINOUTStaceOUT
Indicates the player won the game Indicates the player was the mole Indicates the player won a free pass Indicates that the player was originally eliminated, but was brought back in a twist Indicates the player scored the lowest on the quiz and was eliminated
Indicates the player tied for the lowest score on the quiz, but had a faster time
Episodes
Episode 1
Episode 1 recapOriginal airdate: 27 July 2003Location: Sydney, Australia Assignment Money earned Possible earnings Arrival Game $2,000 $5,000 Mole Air $6,000 $8,000 Luggage Repack $27,000 $100,000 Parachute Safe $1,000 $7,000 $120,000Elimination Stace 1st player eliminated
Arrival Game: The players met up in five different locations in Sydney, in pairs, each of them near a phone. To start this assignment, the host called Nathan and Alison and told them to find a safe in town hall. Inside it were instructions, and if they could open the safe within three minutes, they'd win $1,000. They encountered a sign that said "PHONE = 74663, MOLE = ????" They correctly figured that the combination would be the word MOLE spelled out on a telephone keypad, but in their haste they did not enter the correct digits, which were 6653. The host then called them on a mobile that had been stashed above the sign and told them the correct combination. They then opened the safe, found another mobile, and were directed to give the same instructions they'd gotten from the host to Kris and Greg, who were in a bus station, and had to go to the locker room to find their safe. Kris and Greg were presented with a math puzzle to get their combination, which they successfully solved, with the answer 1100, to win $1,000. They in turn sent directions to Cam and Nikki, who were at a pier. The combination to their safe was the number of days the younger of them had been alive. That was 19-year-old Nikki, but time ran out before they figured out the correct answer. The host phoned them after their time was up to tell them their combination was 6964, and to give the directions to Stace and Josh. Their safe was across the street from their starting position by a phone box. Their puzzle was "THE MOLE = 3345. A TRAITOR = ????" Josh instantly solved this, winning $1,000, though neither the correct answer nor his reasoning were revealed (the answer was later revealed to be 1101). They in turn gave the assignment's directions to Shaun and Petrina, who had to find their puzzle on another phone box and enter it into the safe, which was inside a car. They had to add the year of federation to "two fat ladies," the Melbourne GPO postal code, and the number of seconds in an hour. They failed to find their correct combination of 8590, and upon opening the safe were told that their car would take them to the airport, where the other eight were also headed.
Mole Air: Upon arriving at the airport, the players met up for the first time as a group and all but Greg and Shaun boarded "Mole Air flight 007." The other eight were to skydive from a height of . At the hotel, the host presented Greg and Shaun with their assignment – they had to correctly guess which of the other eight would jump, and which would not. Each correct guess was worth $1,000 for the kitty, but each incorrect guess would take $1,000 away from the kitty. They predicted everyone but Josh and Kris would jump. Before jumping, each player in the plane was given a 4-digit number and told to remember it. Everyone but Kris jumped, meaning that seven of the picks were correct and one incorrect, so $6,000 was won.
Luggage Repack: The men were given five minutes to unpack as much from the women's luggage as they saw fit, and for each kilogram that they took away, $1,000 would be added to the kitty, at a maximum of 100 kilos. The women walked into the hotel midway through the assignment and were able to watch the men rooting through their bags, and were also informed that whatever was taken away by the men would be gone for the rest of the game. The other four all removed lots of belongings from the others' bags, but Nathan only removed a small number of light items from Kris' bag. They removed 27 kilograms of luggage, adding $27,000 to the group kitty.
Parachute Safe: Each of the seven people who jumped from the airplane were given a safe and told that the number they were given before jumping was the combination to open it. Each player who successfully opened their safe would win $1,000 for the kitty, but each player who failed would cost the kitty $1,000. Alison, Petrina, and Josh failed to open their safes, but the other four who jumped all remembered their numbers, putting the group $1,000 ahead for this assignment.
Episode 2
Episode 2 recapOriginal airdate: 3 August 2003Location: Nouméa, New Caledonia Assignment Money earned Possible earnings Player Info $9,000 Dam Relay Race $0 $10,000 Crossword $3,000 $10,000 $149,000Elimination Greg 2nd player eliminated (tied for lowest score, slower time)
Player Info: On the plane to New Caledonia, the players were each presented with an iPAQ that automatically scrolled through profile information on another player. They guarded the information they'd been given, but upon landing and meeting up with the host at the lunch table at their hotel, they discovered that part of this challenge was a teamwork-building exercise; each of them, except for Shaun, was asked a question based on the information presented to someone else. The questions would win $1,000 for the group kitty if answered correctly, and take $2,000 out of the kitty if answered wrong or not answered within five seconds. All nine players missed their question, and $18,000 was lost.
Dam Relay Race: The players were taken to the Yate Dam, and told to traverse a gap, 75 meters in elevation and bridged by two ropes. The players were to walk the rope, grasping the top one for balance, and get from one side to the other. The catch was that they were also wearing heart rate monitors, and each time their heart rates went above 160 beats per minute, they were forced to stop in place and wait for their heart rate to go down. They were given an hour for all of them to go down the ladder, cross the gap, and climb the ladder on the side. If the team decided someone's heart rate was hopelessly too high, they could pull them out, but it would incur a 10-minute penalty, and all time that was taken to that point would also count. It was worth $10,000. Josh and Petrina were stopped several times while on the rope, with Petrina not even making it across – the group decided to pull her out. Shaun was stopped twice, and Nathan once; everyone else made it across without incident. The last player was Kris, who was very afraid of the assignment and her heart rate topped 160 on the ladder and in climbing over the ledge and onto the wire. Just as she was about to continue on the rope, time for the challenge ran out.
Crossword: The players met the host at a park, and were presented with a giant crossword puzzle. The clues for the crossword puzzle were in a separate location, and six players took motorbikes to them. The others stayed behind and put oversized letter and number tiles on the crossword board to complete the puzzle. There was a 30-minute time limit, with hints available from the host for $1,000 apiece. The crossword clues were earned based on brainteasers presented to each pair of players. Each duo, Alison and Petrina, Josh and Greg, and Kris and Nathan, were presented with the same three brainteasers, and each correct answer would give them a computer chip to put in their iPAQ, and that would give a clue to the crossword puzzle for Cam, Shaun, and Nikki. Kris and Nathan needed to buy the answer to solve the first brainteaser, costing $1,000. Josh and Greg, and Alison and Petrina needed to buy the answer for the second. Each duo solved the third brainteaser without help from the host. Back at the crossword board, Cam convinced the other two to buy a crossword clue that they'd already received from one of the other players, costing $1,000. They also had to buy one answer for $2,000. They also had an incorrect answer on their final board, costing another $1,000. All these deductions knocked the $10,000 winnings down to $3,000.
Shaun, who tied with Greg for the lowest score on the computer quiz, was relieved when the green screen appeared. After Greg's name was typed in and the screen turned red, Shaun, Nathan and Josh were all jubilant, despite the nature of Greg's departure.
Episode 3 Episode 3 recapOriginal airdate: 10 August 2003Location: Nouméa, New Caledonia Assignment Money earned Possible earnings Helibombing $13,000 $60,000 Underwater $5,000 $5,000 Photography $10,000 $224,000Elimination Cam Appeared to be the 3rd player eliminated
Luggage Repack: Though not a monetary challenge, Petrina and Nikki were instructed to remove from the men's luggage the same amount that they had removed from the women's in the first episode, and if successful, they'd win back everything the women had lost in the first luggage repack. With the other six all sent away for an assignment, the two of them were given the keys to the men's rooms and free rein, and succeeded in removing enough luggage from the men to win back what they had earlier lost.