Apparently if you renew a reality show for enough seasons, it starts to turn into other reality shows. Big Brother, the CBS summer series where housemates evict each other and compete in backyard stunts, is stealing an idea from ABC’s deflated reality series The Mole and throwing a “saboteur” in the house who will pose as a player but will “disrupt the lives of fellow contestants” and “earn additional rewards as long as they go undiscovered, fulfilling fan-inspired tasks.” Should the network go even further in its Mole pilfering?
Sure, the idea isn’t much different from the “America’s Player” conceit of past seasons, except that contestants are actively seeking out the mole this time. But look, Big Brother: You can’t reference The Mole when some of us still mourn it every day. Don’t taunt us/me. If you insist on blithely stealing The Mole’s gold, you should actually incorporate more elements of it to make Big Brother 12 memorable for a series that’s past its expiration date.
Here are a few other Mole-y ideas that would work in the Big Brother house.
· Secret bribes
This is as much a play on NBC’s Persons Unknown as it is The Mole, but if producers reached out to individual players — perhaps without the other players knowing — and offered them $20,000 bribes for being “least liked,” or “the biggest threat,” that would add some novel suspense. When Elavia from season two of The Mole accepted a $50,000 bribe for being the most suspected contestant in the game, it changed the dynamic for the rest of the competition.
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