Richard Hatch has a strange Survivor legacy. The show’s first ever winner has been at times, celebrated and at other times, blacklisted by the show and its producers who never seem quite sure what to do with him or how to talk about him. Now we can add yet another weird chapter to the weird relationship.
Earlier today, Hatch took to social media to claim he was not invited to Survivor 50's live finale coming up later this week. Reports had been running around that every former winner had been asked to appear, but he tweeted directly at Gayle King who mentioned the invites on CBS Mornings and said no one had reached out to him. Here’s one of several tweets he sent out commenting on it…
Disappointed, Gayle. CBS Mornings lied this morning saying all Survivor winners were invited to tonight’s Season 50 finale! I’m the Original Winner, and I WAS NOT INVITED!
Not surprisingly, that tweet and a few similar ones ran around the Survivor community very quickly, as fans debated why host Jeff Probst and the producers decided to exclude him. Within a few hours, his allegation also got picked up by a bunch of mainstream sources, which caught the attention of CBS. It turns out the network has a completely different story.
CBS refuted Hatch’s claim to Page Six and said he was invited, along with every other former winner. Here’s the super blunt rebuttal…
All winners were invited to the Survivor 50 finale to celebrate the show’s legacy.
To be honest, I have no idea what’s going on here. It’s hard to imagine CBS would invite every former winner but him and then lie about it later, but then again, it’s also hard to imagine Hatch would get invited, say no and then claim the exact opposite on social media. The simplest explanation is the network reached out and didn’t get a hold of him, but nothing about Hatch’s relationship with Survivor has ever been simpler.
More than fifty million people watched Hatch, the scheming, openly gay, frequently naked leader of the show’s first alliance, win a million dollars. The producers had been hoping Rudy Bosch, a 72-year-old former Navy Seal would win. Probst and company worried Hatch’s manipulative behavior and cutthroat gameplay would stop fans from watching another season, but the opposite ended up being true.
Hatch’s alliance building and gamification of the outdoor challenge became a lightning rod for fans watching the show to argue about. Future players emulated his style, and he became a well-regarded legend of the game until it all got really complicated.
He returned for All-Stars in Season 8 but was involved in an uncomfortable moment where, while naked, he brushed against another contestant during a challenge. She felt he acted inappropriately and quit the show. He was quickly voted out and has not been back since, not even for Winners at War, though he has appeared on other shows. He also went to jail for allegedly not paying the taxes on his winnings and has not always had the kindest things to say about the show or where it has gone in the past.
But you can’t talk about Survivor without talking about Richard Hatch. The popularity of the show and the strategic gameplay behind it both trace their roots back to him. He’s a central part of where the show started and how it evolved. Sometimes those involved with the show are very content to talk about him, and sometimes it feels like they’re trying to avoid the topic entirely and let his legacy become a little more out of focus.
I can’t speak for all fans, but personally, I’d like to see Hatch at the Survivor 50 finale. To me, if we’re going to be honoring all the former winners, he should be a part of that. Whether he was invited or not, I hope he gets on the same page with CBS and mends the fence enough to attend. I won’t hold my breath on that Last Gasp challenge though.
