Richard Hatch made his triumphant return to reality television last month and I feel like we, the gay community, shrugged our shoulders and said, “who cares?” This is sad to me, of course, because the 63-year-old was one of the pioneering gay men who were not afraid to come out on national television. I’m talking about his time on the debut season of Survivor in 2001, which saw him walking away with the million-dollar grand prize – and a fair amount of criticism. Still, it’s not like he murdered someone.
Despite his legal troubles, Hatch has remained a staple in reality television. His co-starring appearances include Survivor: All Stars in 2004, Battle of the Network Reality Stars in 2005, Celebrity Apprentice 4 in 2011 and The Biggest Loser 17 in 2016. Now, after almost nine years, the Rhode Island native returned to competitive television with E’s House of Villains 2. And, again, I feel like this contribution went unnoticed. This could be, perhaps, because I think he’s a total GILF, but that’s a whole other story!
E’s House of Villains is a series that puts a group of reality television hot heads in a mansion, where they live together and compete for a cash prize of $200,000. By living together, it makes the tension and suspense around gameplay and eliminations much darker. Other cast members for season two aside from Hatch include Tiffany Pollard (Flavor of Love), Camilla Poindexter (Bad Girls Club), Kandy Muse (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Teresa Giudice (Real Housewives of NJ) and wrester/stud-muffin Jesse Godderz (Big Brother).
Spoiler Alert: Richard was eliminated in episode five after a blindside from Camilla Poindexter. His time in House of Villains was memorable due to almost winning several challenges, his flair-ups with Tiffany “New York” Pollard and the fact that he appears to continue his nudity trend. Unfortunately, I think what hurt him during this competition was the fact that he was trying to coach others, like Wes Bergmann (The Challenge), instead of focusing on his own game play and strategy.
Richard Hatch Pops Off At CBS Producers – Instinct Magazine
In regard to his fellow competitor, the Survivor icon told Collider:
I love Camilla. Camilla’s learning, and I love her, but she didn’t know how to play. And the idea that she could do what she thought she was doing by not thinking it through. Camila didn’t realize that she needed allies, and people who play these games know alliances are extremely important, and Camila just threw all the spaghetti at the wall.
Now that Richard has been eliminated from the show, it looks like I’ll be rooting for Jessie Godderz because… woof, absolutely. And, I mean, I was a fan during his original run on Big Brother.
It stands to reason that we may see Mr. Hatch again before the conclusion of House of Villains 2 and during a potential third season. As evident if you watch the show, eliminated contestants always return for the finale and appear as guests in future seasons. If he does return in some way or another, I hope he comes back guns blazing because I think his time on this particular show was cut way too short. Maybe if he stayed around longer, his typical antics would have ensued and gay media would have said, “hey, Mr. Hatch!”
Regardless, the veteran, very occasional actor and former business owner has left an indelible mark on reality television and gay history that simply can’t be ignored. Even if Joel McHale thinks otherwise.
Are you a fan of Richard Hatch? How do you feel about his time on House of Villains 2? Do you think he played the game well? Are you watching this season? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section or on social media.
Richard is GILF, I think he should just get an onlyfans account and make that GILF money…dead serious. I’d subscribe. We already saw him full frontal in ANOTHER GAY MOVIE. He’s got the goods.