Jon Kelley ("Extra," "The National Sports Report," "Baseball Today") is host. In the premiere, "Episode 501," 12 players meet for the first time in Los Angeles, Chile. Their first mission will have them jumping over the edge of a waterfall, facing their greatest fears, and one player will be left stranded on a deserted beach to fend for himself/herself.

"The Mole," based on the hit Belgian format, is produced by Stone & Company Entertainment and follows a group of players as they try to figure out who among them is The Mole, a saboteur trying to keep them from winning money.

Players must decide who they think The Mole is and then learn as much about him or her as they can because, at the end of each one-hour episode, the player who knows the least about The Mole is immediately "Executed" from the game. In the final dramatic episode, The Mole is revealed and one of two final players can win up to $500,000.

Essentially, this is sort of a much-meaner incarnation of "The Amazing Race." MUCH meaner.

As is the case with so many "reality" shows, the entertainment comes from watching the contestants fight and bicker and backstab. These people weren't all cast because we're going to love them; some of them were clearly cast in the hopes that we'll love to hate them.

In tonight's premiere, Nicole, a 32-year-old OB-GYN from Chicago, pretty much instantly nominates herself for contestant-you-love-to-hate. If her ability to circumvent the rules doesn't get you, this probably will:

"What's wrong with being smart and gorgeous at the same time?" she asks in reference to herself.

And if that doesn't get you, there's this exchange with the show's host after the other 11 players have unanimously named her as the whiniest player:

"Do you mind if I call you 'Whiner'?" Kelly asks.

"Doctor Whiner," Nicole responds.

In next week's second episode, a fellow contestant says, "One thing left out of (Nicole's) esteemed education was manners."

This is where the entertainment value in shows like "The Mole" comes from. The producers want us to root for some contestants and against others — they want us to like some and hate others.

It's like a soap opera, which does exactly the same thing with its heroes and villains. And, like soap operas, sometimes the heroes turn into villains and the villains turn into heroes.

"I've always loved the movie 'Groundhog Day,'" contestant Bobby declares, leading Kristen to wonder if groundhogs and moles are related, and if they are, if that makes Bobby "The Mole."It's been several years since ABC aired a season of "The Mole" (10 tonight, WTAE), a reality competition with a devoted following.

New host Jon Kelley replaces past hosts, including a pre-CNN Anderson Cooper, and welcomes 12 Americans at the edge of a South American waterfall for their first physical challenge. The game play remains the same: One of the 12 is "the mole," the individual who's being paid to sabotage their missions.

In the first challenge, it's particularly difficult to tell who might be the mole and who is just unlucky or uncoordinated enough not to grab a bag of money while riding a raft over a waterfall. A second challenge involves scavenging for items on a beach. Naturally, every action or inaction creates suspicion.

"I noticed the girls were doing most of the running and the guys were just sauntering," says Liz, a 60-year-old retiree.

Fans of mysteries, competitions and character-driven reality shows will be thrilled to see "The Mole" surface.

A Bishop woman is a contestant on the new season of ABC's thriller-reality series, The Mole. 26 year old, Victoria Garza grew up in Bishop, Texas, and graduated from Texas A&M Kingsville. Family members gathered to watch the season premier Monday night.

Parents, Joe and Rosa Garza say they haven't been able to talk with their daughter for the last few months, and her location has been top secret. Now, they're able to watch her on national TV! Whether or not she is the mole, her father Joe Garza told us, "Stay Tuned!"