Kate Pahls (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        Kate Pahls scaled Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia and plunged into the icy waters of Antarctica. The 55-year-old woman lived for two years in the Philippines and started her own construction company in Cincinnati. Her next adventure: the twists and turns of reality TV.

        Four new reality shows feature Tristate residents among the contestants. A Mariemont grandmother, Mrs. Pahls is one of 10 competitors on the reality television show, The Mole, which premieres tonight on ABC. It pits the contestants against one another — and an unknown saboteur (the mole) — for a $1 million prize.

INFOGRAPHIC

Tristaters on reality TV

        Sound a lot like the summer's rating wonder Survivor?You bet. The Mole is one of the reality-show copycats hoping to lure viewers like those in Cincinnati who gave Survivor some of its best ratings last year.

        Cincinnatians tuning in to watch Richard, Rudy and the gang on June 14 gave it a higher rating here than any other city in the country, and the Tristate held second place for a number of episodes.

        Lust and love square off on Temptation Island, which debuts Wednesday on Fox with a character identified so far only as “Evan from Cincinnati.” Rodger Bingham, a Crittenden, Ky., teacher, faces the tribe in the Australian outback on the Survivor sequel, which will air Jan. 28. And Bengals player Brad St. Louis hopes to score more than his team did this season on the WB's Kiss the Bride, where three couples compete to win their dream wedding in Holland.

        “These individuals are strategically chosen for the conflicts they bring and for ratings purposes,” says Dr. Clay Calvert, author of Voyeur Nation: Media, Privacy and Peering in Modern Culture. “Is it just coincidence (four new shows include a Tristate resident) or not? Probably not.”

        Family and friends say they know why Mrs. Pahls, a real estate investor, was selected. She's adventurous, energetic and ready to tackle any challenge, they say.

        Like contestants of other reality shows, Mrs. Pahls is barred from talking to the media. Her husband, Jim, doesn't even know whether she won. But friends and family shared stories of Mrs. Pahls and her life before The Mole.

        When Survivor aired last summer, Mrs. Pahls — a mother of two and grandmother of two — told her husband she thought she could compete. She applied for Survivor II but didn't make the cut. Then came The Mole.

        On this show, 10 players — five men and five women — are swept away to secret locations in 34 cities in four countries on two continents. They compete in mental and physical tests for three weeks, trying to collect up to $1 million in prize money.

        But there is a catch.

        One of the contestants is a “mole” trying to sabotage the rest of the group. Every few days the players are quizzed. The one who knows the least about the mole is eliminated — “executed” — until one contestant is left to take home the dough.

        Mrs. Pahls “told us she was going to be gone for a couple of months, doing something special,” said friend and neighbor Joe Cox. “I said "I know, you're going to do the Survivor sequel.'”

        Mr. Cox says Mrs. Pahls “doesn't say a word about this,” except to invite a few friends to a premiere party to watch the show and review a tape of it. They hope Mrs. Pahls can at least provide behind-the-scenes details of the production.

        “She's a very savvy lady,” Mr. Cox said. “She's well-organized, and she does her homework.

        Business partner and close friend Kathy Woods says she doesn't know whether Mrs. Pahls won. But “she has all the skills and the personality to win,” Mrs. Woods says. “I wish her luck.”

        Mrs. Woods has seen Mrs. Pahls under pressure and on adventure. The two, nicknamed Ethel and Lucy at their local gym, travel often together, scouting remote, exotic places.

        “If one of us doesn't think about it, the other one will,” says Mrs. Woods of Indian Hill. “And she'll do it.”

        Such as last year, when Mrs. Pahls jumped in the Antarctica Ocean, where the water's so cold people can freeze to death in four minutes. Mrs. Woods took the pictures.

        “I thought, "Oh my word, she's crazy.'”

        About three years ago, Mrs. Pahls climbed 10 steps up the side of a tree, then backed down, shaking. She desperately wanted to walk on a rope bridge above the leafy green canopy of the Amazon rain forest, but a childhood fear of heights haunted her.

        For three days, Mrs. Pahls worked with a shaman to conquer the fear, then she scaled the tree and wandered the bridge 300 feet above the ground.

        Mrs. Pahls also takes flying lessons.

        That spunk and grit attracted Jim Pahls, who retired in 1988 as president of the Andrew Jergens Co. Kathy and Tony Woods set the two up on a blind date at the Palace. For Mr. Pahls, it was love at first sight.

        “What you're seeing of her right now is (what attracted me),” Mr. Pahls says. “She's a free spirit and always interested in doing something adventuresome.”

        The two married six years ago at Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church. Then they honeymooned in Europe.

        This is what it's like being married to Kate, Mr. Pahls says: They had a hotel reservation for the first night of the honeymoon and a car on reserve. The rest of the time, they wandered Europe without an itinerary or reservations.

        “We went where the spirit led us,” he says.

        When Mrs. Pahls wanted to apply for a spot on reality TV, “I thought it was a great idea,” Mr. Pahls says. “You have to understand our relationship. I'm very supportive of everything she does, and she's very supportive of everything I do.”

        He doesn't worry when she embarks on adventures: “She takes care of herself real well.”

        For Mrs. Woods, this is one of the first times the two friends aren't sharing the adventure together.

        “When the concept of The Mole came along, that's probably the ultimate adventure,” says Mrs. Woods. “She said, "I feel so terrible, because you can't go with me.'”

        So Mrs. Woods made a bet with her friend to up the ante of the game.

        If The Mole producers were interested in Mrs. Pahls, Mrs. Woods would take the two couples to Taco Bell. If she got an interview, they would go to Trio. If Mrs. Pahls was a contestant on the show, Mrs. Woods paid for dinner for four at the Palace or the Maisonette.

        And if Mrs. Pahls wins the $1 million?

        Mrs. Pahls takes the Woods and Mr. Pahls out to dinner — anywhere in the world.

        “I hope she won,” Mrs. Woods says, laughing. “For lots of reasons. I'm betting on Kate, and I want to collect. That has to be my final answer.”

        Mike Pulfer of the Enquirer contributed to this report.

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