Richard Hatch
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Born: April 8, 1961
Hometown: Newport, Rhode Island Occupation: Corporate Trainer Seasons: Borneo; All Stars Placing: Winner (Borneo); Fourteenth (All Stars) Tribes: Tagi; Rattana; Mogo Mogo Total Challenge Wins: 11
Days Lasted: 54 Votes Against: 12 Awards: Strategy With A Smile (Borneo); Meal Ticket (Borneo); Best Strategic Move (Borneo); Bamboozled! (Borneo) |
Survivor: Borneo
Richard Hatch competed in the inaugural season of Survivor, which would later come to be known as Survivor: Borneo. He was placed on the orange Tagi tribe, where his outspoken and somewhat arrogant nature rubbed his tribemates the wrong way. Rich's arrogance became clear over the next few days, such as claiming on Day One that he had already won the game and being unhelpful around camp. After losing the first Immunity Challenge, Rich speculated that he was in danger of being voted out due to his arrogance. He decided to target Stacey Stillman for being the weakest, however the tribe vote out Sonja Christopher instead as she had cost the tribe the challenge the day before. Richard attempted to catch fish with Kelly Wiglesworth and Susan Hawk, however they were unsuccessful. In a confessional Richard expressed his desire to get to know Stacey better, as he voted for her at the last Tribal Council and revealed that Stacey believed Rudy Boesch was the one who voted for her. After revealing he was gay to the rest of the tribe, he was scared to tell Rudy, as Rich thought he was homophobic. However after telling him, Rich was surprised to learn that Rudy was comfortable around him and even referred to Rich as one of the nicest people he had ever met. During an unaired Reward Challenge, Richard was the designated weight bearer for Tagi. He lost the challenge to Joel Klug of Pagong. However, they managed to win the Immunity Challenge. Rich had a small conflict with Dirk Been due to the latter's despise of homosexual people. After winning fishing gear at the Reward Challenge Richard revealed his proficiency at fishing, catching a stingray and fish for his tribe, causing some envy from Sean Kenniff. Richard's fishing ability increased his position in the tribe, with many of his tribemates praising his ability. Tagi once again lost the Immunity Challenge, sending them back to Tribal Council. Richard again targeted Stacey for her weakness. This time he got his way, as Stacey was voted out in a 5-2 vote. Richard formed Survivor's first alliance on Day 10 between himself, Rudy, Sue, and Kelly. Although acknowledging having an alliance was sneaky, Richard deemed it necessary to ensure his survival for the next few rounds. Richard expressed confidence about this alliance, saying that if they stuck together they would be unstoppable. Things began well for the alliance as Tagi was able to win the next Immunity Challenge. The tribe became annoyed at Sean and Dirk's failed attempts at catching fish as they were wasting time instead of working. Rich revealed another skill of his by performing better than anyone else with the slingshot the tribe needed for the next challenge. Despite his accuracy though, Tagi was unable to win the Reward Challenge. At camp Richard found a snake, and despite knowing its lethal consequences, decided to play with it. After losing the Immunity Challenge Rich planned with his alliance about whether they should vote out Sean or Dirk. Although they initially decided on voting for Sean, after seeing how weak Dirk had become they changed their votes and Dirk became the alliances first victim. After successfully ousting Dirk Rich became confident that he was in control of the game. The tribe started thinking about the Merge and decided that winning the next Immunity Challenge was crucial in order to go into the merge with even numbers. Around camp Richard decided to start walking around naked, which both amused and irked his tribe. The Tagi tribe managed to win immunity, which meant they would go into the merge against Pagong tied with 5 members each. After merging into Rattana, Rich's alliance had a decision to make: either vote out the former Pagong members or Sean, the only Tagi member not in the alliance. Rich expressed his surprise at Sean and Gretchen Cordy's unwillingness to form an alliance, calling it sheer stupidity. Rich bonded well with his new tribemates, learning how to play cards from Gervase Peterson and bonding with Greg Buis. Rich was excited when he learned that he was still the only person on the tribe who knew how to fish. At the first Tribal Council of the merged tribe Rich's alliance decided to target Gretchen, as she was seen as the leader of Pagong. After an unexpected 4-1-1-1-1-1-1 vote, Gretchen was voted out. The tribe began to realize how good of a position Rich had put himself in. As he was the only person able to fish, if the tribe voted him out they would not eat anything other than rice. Rich and Greg continued to get to know each other, with both thinking the other one was overconfident and neither knowing whether they should trust the other one. The Tagi Alliance noticed how threatening Greg could become if he stuck around and voted him out at their next Tribal Council. Richard and Sue celebrated their position in the game, but became weary of Kelly's wavering trust in the alliance. After Rudy accidentally overcooked Richard's fish, he decided to stop fishing for a few days so the tribe would appreciate it when he did fish. This backfired slightly as Colleen Haskell became annoyed at Rich's attitude. This was further made worse when the women of the tribe managed to catch fish by themselves, rendering Rich useless. The former Pagong members became aware of Rich's alliance and formed their own counter alliance. Richard celebrated his 39th birthday by walking around naked. This annoyed several members of the tribe which caused Rich to put his clothes back on. Rich continued to notice Kelly distancing herself from the alliance and began to wonder if she would flip on him if she got the chance. Although the counter alliance targeted Rich, his own alliance stuck together and Richard barely made it through Tribal Council. After surviving the last Tribal Council, Richard became delighted and considered stopping catching fish until all of the ex-Pagong members were voted out. Rich compares his catching fish to voting people out of the tribe. Sue and Kelly planned on eliminating Rich at the final three and reveal that they never truly trusted Rich. Rich won the Immunity Challenge, keeping him safe going into an uncertain Tribal Council. Kelly officially left the alliance and considered joining the ex-Pagong members. Sean also became uncertain with the Tagi tribe. However the Tagi tribe stayed strong once again to vote out Gervase. Rich joined Sean on a reward and got to eat breakfast on a yacht. Sean's father, Jim, was also on the yacht and gave all of the remaining contestants a care package from their loved ones back home. At the Immunity Challenge, Richard annoyed his tribemates by singing "99 Bottles of Beer", in hopes of throwing his tribemates off balance. He didn't even make it half way through his song before falling off the plank. Back at the beach the alliance minus Kelly discussed voting out Kelly due to her un-trustworthiness. However, Kelly managed to win immunity forcing them to vote out the last Pagong member remaining, Colleen. After Colleen left, Richard commented on Colleen saying she was "A wonderful person". Rudy and Rich further solidified their alliance, saying that they would never vote against each other and planned on voting out Kelly next. Kelly managed to win immunity again, forcing them to vote out Sean, the only person left to never be part of the alliance. Now with nowhere left to turn the alliance was finally forced to turn on itself. The final four reflect on how far they have come, commenting on how much weight they have all lost and the effect the game has had on their bodies. Kelly continued her immunity streak which put Rich in hot water. Although Rudy and Rich voted against Sue, Kelly joined Sue in voting against Rich. After both Rich and Sue pleaded their case on why they should stay Kelly changed her vote, eliminating Sue and saving Rich. Jeff Probst woke the remaining three castaways up early the next day to partake in their Rites of Passage and Final Immunity Challenge. After reflecting on all of the castaways who had been voted out before them, Rich, Rudy and Kelly began their Final Immunity Challenge. After two and a half hours Rich came to the conclusion that both Kelly and Rudy would take him to the Final Two. Because of this Richard stepped down, eliminating him from the challenge. Rich's prediction proved right as Kelly voted out Rudy, bring Rich to the Final Tribal Council. On Day 39 the two finalists reflected on how far they had come. Both Rich and Kelly prepared for the questions they would be asked by the jury. After burning down their camp the finalists headed to their Final Tribal Council. During his opening speech, Richard argued that he has played the best game. After being questioned by Gervase, Rich admitted that if he could change one thing about his game he would put less trust in the other contestants. Jenna Lewis asked the finalists who they would want to see in the Final Two instead of them. Richard chose Greg and Rudy. Colleen asked Rich what character traits got him to the end. Rich answered "observation" which confused Colleen as he had not got to know anyone very well. Greg asked the two finalists to pick a number between one and ten. Richard chose seven. However Greg later revealed that the numbers has no impact on his vote and that he had already made up his mind about who to vote for. Sean admitted that he loved Richard's "Fat Naked Fag" strategy. During Sue's speech she called Rich whiny and a loser in life. However she also compared him to a snake and Kelly to a rat. She finished her speech by lamenting that the jury should let the game end the way nature intended, for the snake to eat the rat. In the end Richard received the votes of all of the ex-Tagi members and Greg, granting him the title of Sole Survivor in a 4-3 vote.
Voting History
Episode |
Richard Voted For |
Voted For Richard |
1 |
Stacey Stillman |
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3 |
Stacey Stillman |
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5 |
Dirk Been |
--- |
7 |
Gretchen Cordy |
Colleen Haskell |
8 |
Greg Buis |
--- |
9 |
Colleen Haskell; Gervase Peterson; Jenna Lewis |
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10 |
Individual Immunity |
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11 |
Colleen Haskell |
--- |
12 |
Sean Kenniff |
--- |
13 |
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13 |
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Jury Votes: Greg Buis; Rudy Boesch; Sean Kenniff; Susan Hawk |
Survivor: All Stars
Richard's appearance on Survivor: All-Stars was a very short, but eventful one. He, according to host Jeff Probst, "smuggled a canister of matches up his bum", earning his Mogo Mogo tribe fire. In every Immunity Challenge, he competed naked. On Day 7, while he went fishing, he got bitten by a shark which his tribe would eat. However, Mogo Mogo lost one member on Day 9 when The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca quit in order to be with her dying mother.
When the Saboga tribe was dissolved on Day 13, Mogo Mogo gained two extra members, Ethan Zohn and Jerri Manthey, and when they lost immunity on Day 15, the tribe immediately targeted Richard. Although Richard got wind of his impending doom and put together a counter strategy by aligning with the girls of his tribe, Jerri, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien and Shii Ann Huang, for a majority alliance to vote out the guys, starting with Colby Donaldson, his plans were foiled and he was voted out, 6-1. Afterward, he screamed, "I've been bamboozled!", much to the amusement of his tribemates and Jeff Probst. It is worthy to note that in the challenge, he "accidentally" bumped into fellow Borneo contestant Susan Hawk while he was naked. This caused her to quit in the next episode.
When the Saboga tribe was dissolved on Day 13, Mogo Mogo gained two extra members, Ethan Zohn and Jerri Manthey, and when they lost immunity on Day 15, the tribe immediately targeted Richard. Although Richard got wind of his impending doom and put together a counter strategy by aligning with the girls of his tribe, Jerri, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien and Shii Ann Huang, for a majority alliance to vote out the guys, starting with Colby Donaldson, his plans were foiled and he was voted out, 6-1. Afterward, he screamed, "I've been bamboozled!", much to the amusement of his tribemates and Jeff Probst. It is worthy to note that in the challenge, he "accidentally" bumped into fellow Borneo contestant Susan Hawk while he was naked. This caused her to quit in the next episode.
Voting History
Episodes |
Richard Voted For |
Voted For Richard |
6 |
Trivia
- Richard is the first contestant from Rhode Island.
- Hatch became the first contestant to be in the game on his birthday (his birthday, April 8, coincided with Day 27 of Borneo). He turned 39 on that day.
- Richard and Susan Hawk are the first two contestants to be involved in a tie vote.
- Richard is the first person to win Survivor.
- Richard is the only Survivor winner to be announced at the end of the Final Tribal Council. Starting with Survivor: The Australian Outback, winners are revealed right before a live audience.
- In 2008, Survivor host Jeff Probst mentioned in an interview that Richard Hatch smuggled a canister of matches before All-Stars, "in a little container up his bum".
- His arrest was referenced by Jeff Probst during Survivor: Panama's Reunion Show, when he told winner Aras Baskauskas to pay his taxes.
- Richard is one of six winners, along with Ethan Zohn, Jenna Morasca, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Rob Mariano and Tom Westman, to play more than once and not be a member of the Jury in any season.