The Original Survivor, Richard Hatch, Reveals Why He Won’t Be On The Series Most Anticipated Season
Reality television certainly has changed what society finds entertaining. While game shows and MTV’s The Real World had long existed before, nothing shaped television quite like the first competitive reality series, Survivor. Originally airing on the CBS network on Thursdays at 7PM Central, Survivor: Borneo took over the nation with 51.7 million viewers – and my little, gay, nine-year-old self was one of them! We were introduced to a wild game of strategy that had sixteen people living on an island surviving one another, awful living conditions, and a majority vote at the end of each episode until we were left with only one. America fell in love with sweetheart, Colleen Haskell, and sky-rocketed the media darling to brief fame as the costar and love interest in a Rob Schneider film, but everyone could only talk about one person: Richard Hatch. The original winner who invented the strategy of alliances on reality television, Hatch was primarily known for being nude all the time and well, gay, and well, an eventual millionaire and winner of the series. Years later Hatch would return for an All Stars edition of the series and wound up in jail after tax fraud. Fast forward to the present, Survivor has had a whopping thirty-nine seasons with thirty nine different winners. Their latest season premieres tonight which showcases twenty winners competing against each other to be the best of the best, accurately titled Winners At War. Notably, Hatch is missing from this mind-blowing cast and he’s now talking about why he won’t be seen.
Let’s rewind: During Hatch’s All Star stint in 2004, Hatch revived his naked gimmick once again. At a challenge where the opposing tribes compete against one another, Hatch seemingly rubbed his nude body against loudmouth Truck Driver, Sue Hawk, who originally competed with him on the first ever season (she placed fourth and was in his alliance until the bitter end – and voted for him to win the million). Hatch was voted out in this episode, although this incident had nothing to do with his tribe giving him the chop. In the following episode, Hawk had a meltdown, cried foul, and quit the game because she was humiliated by Hatch. This is important.
In the latest season of Survivor, as in the one that aired just a month or so ago, a Talent Manager in Hollywood and contestant, Dan Spilo, was removed from the game for inappropriate behavior towards his fellow female contestants. It was a whole “Woke” conversation and situation especially in the #MeToo era. Now, Hatch is claiming that because of his All Star incident and Spilo’s behavior, the CBS producers were claiming he was too much of a liability and cut him from the cast only two days before he was set to depart to film Winners At War.
In a video Hatch posted on YouTube, he’s spilling all the tea. He states obviously the original winner should be included in an all winner edition of Survivor. He withdrew from his last semester of a PhD program to participate in the show, only to be cut alongside Survivor: The Australian Outback winner, Tina Wesson, an outspoken Republican, two days prior to filming. He goes on to state that his past behavior got him cut as he went through all the legal paperwork and medical examinations required to be a contestant on the show, but apparently he is not family friendly. He reminds us that he has not ever been in a sexual harassment lawsuit and that is not his character and is upset producers have benefited in his boldness for years and now want to throw him under the bus as he is no longer a favorite of producers, specifically Host Jeff Probst. Hatch is even coming for people criticizing his video, referencing his behavior on All Stars was inappropriate. He tells:
“I’m happy to address the “Sue Hawk” situation, and I will do so in an upcoming video. I spent an entire season on Survivor with Sue during which she and I were both often naked. Further the woman was more crude and sexually explicit with me about her sex life than any woman had ever been. Oh, and did you forget I’m gay and have never had any sexual interest in women? Those are some of the things that should have made you skeptical of salacious reporting. Things you probably don’t know include the fact I was voted off the show and unaware of Sue’s claims made after I’d left. Further, Sue has informed multiple people she knew she couldn’t win and planned to figure out a way to extort CBS. Add to that, we all (Sue included) watched the unedited footage from all four cameras showing how she turned around in the challenge to intentionally instigate interaction with me, and I NEVER touched her or anyone else – despite the salacious reporting and false claims. So your contention I ever did something to her or anyone else is ignorant and inappropriate. Had you interest in sharing an opinion, it would be helpful to learn more about what is true before acting like the typical ignorant bully your comments make you sound like.”
It’s also worth pointing out that Survivor’s other gay winner, Todd Herzog, was allegedly not considered for his substance and alcohol abuse that landed him on The Dr. Phil Show for his addictions.
Survivor: Winners at War premieres TONIGHT on CBS. Will you be tuning in? In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Hatch’s full statement in his YouTube video below:
Writer’s Note: This is the opinion of one Instinct Magazine contributor and does not reflect the views of Instinct Magazine itself or fellow contributors.
