Wie is de Mol? (English: Who is the Mole?) is a Dutch adventurereality competition show. It is based on the Belgian show De Mol, the original version of the format created in 1998 by Woestijnvis and broadcast on VRT. It is one of the most popular television shows in the Netherlands.
Format
Wie is de Mol? is a reality television competition involving a group of candidates. These candidates travel to a foreign country where they have to complete assignments to earn money to fill the prize pot. However, one of the participants is selected as the Mole. The Mole's goal is to secretly sabotage the assignments and keep the total amount of money in the pot as low as possible. The other candidates do not know who the Mole is, and attempt to figure out the Mole's identity throughout the season.
At the end of every episode the candidates take a multiple choice test about the Mole's identity. The test contains 20 questions (40 questions in the final test) about the Mole's activities since the previous test and personal questions about the Mole (for example, "On which team was the mole during the castle-assignment" or "Has the mole been baptized?").
Throughout a season, multiple advantages can be earned:
A joker corrects an incorrect answered question on the test.
A green exemption makes a contestant unable to be eliminated.
A black exemption makes all other played advantages undone.
In most cases, a contestant can choose whether or not and when to play their earned advantage(s).
The person with the fewest correct answers is then eliminated from the show. In most series this process continues until only two contestants and the Mole remain. The winner is the person with the most correct answers in the final test and they get all of the money earned for the prize pot throughout the season.
It often occurs that an unexpected assignment is presented after all contestant filled out a test, which can result in no one being eliminated in that episode, regardless of the results.
↑A special returning candidates season in celebration of 20 seasons of Wie is de Mol?
↑A special streaming season in celebration of 25 years of Wie is de Mol? with its first all civilian cast since Season 4.
↑A special returning candidates season in celebration of 25 seasons of Wie is de Mol?
↑A second streaming season commissioned after the success of the first streaming season.
Seasons
Regular seasons
The first four seasons of Wie is de Mol? had non-celebrities as participants. After a one-year hiatus in 2004, all participants in the following seasons were Dutch celebrities.
The 7th season in 2007 was the first season to have four finalists, with two runner-ups. This also occurred in the 20th season.
12Guilder, the national Dutch currency at the time
↑Frédérique Huydts[nl] died on 3 April 2006, during the period that season 6 was broadcast on television. As requested by her, the airing of the season continued. The €24,475.- that she won was donated to WWF and Foundation KiKa.
12The final of season 7 had four finalists. Renate and Eva both lost to Paul.
↑After unmasking the Mole in season 11 and winning the season, Art went on to present Wie is de Mol? from seasons 12 to 18.
↑After unmasking the Mole in season 15 and winning the season, Rik went on to present Wie is de Mol? from season 19 onwards.
↑Candidates began the first episode in five duos, spread across the capitals of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The first assignment involved finding plane tickets to Georgia, where the remainder of the season took place.
12The final of season 20 had four finalists. Miljuschka and Nathan came second and third respectively and lost to Buddy.
Anniversary seasons
At the reunion of the 20th season (on 14 March 2020), a 20th anniversary season was announced to air in September 2020. The season featured 10 previous contestants.
In February 2025, a 25th anniversary season was announced to air in November 2025. The season featured 5 previous contestants and 5 previous Moles.
On 14 May 2024, a special season was announced to air exclusively on NPO Start and NLZIET in June 2024. This was the first season to feature non-celebrity candidates since 2003.
On 14 October 2024, a second streaming season was announced to air in 2026.
↑Except for episode 5 of season 15, due to an incident at Media Park Hilversum. The episode aired the following Friday at 20:30
Live finale
Ever since 2015, the finale (where the Mole and their sabotaging activity is revealed) is broadcast live, with an audience. Over the years, multiple locations have hosted the live finale.
The 2020 finale was still broadcast live but was held without an audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Two days prior to the finale, the national lockdown was announced.)
The 20th anniversary season finale (later in 2020) was held in the Vondel Church (located in Vondelpark) in Amsterdam. This finale was not broadcast live and was held without an audience.
2021: Gashouder building of Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. This finale was broadcast live but held with an online audience.
2022: Rode Hoed in Amsterdam. This was the first finale to feature a live audience since the COVID-19 pandemic.
