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Survivor

The reality TV genre as we know it was conceived with MTV’s The Real World in 1992, blossomed into dominant life with Survivor in 2000, and has been a major part of the fabric of television, for good and ill, ever since. Since then, countless reality shows have passed through the TV landscape, gifting us with memorable characters in just about every subgenre, from talent competitions to dating shows to candid peeks into the lives of the rich and contemptible. Decider’s Reality TV Hall of Fame is here to recognize the accomplishments of reality TV’s best, most influential, and most memorable characters. Our very first inductee is inaugural Survivor winner Richard Hatch.

The Stats

Reality Show: Survivor

Number of Seasons: 2 (18 episodes)

Accomplishments: Won the first-ever season of Survivor

The Case For Induction

While it’s certainly possible that if Richard Hatch hadn’t been cast on the first season of Survivor, somebody else would have figured out that alliance-based bloc voting was the key to success. Probable, even. After all, cocky young buck Joel was talking alliances over on the other tribe, though he was voted out for his troubles. Still, if Hatch hadn’t decided to band together with tough-talking Susan, unfiltered Rudy, and quietly cunning Kelly to steamroll the rest of the competition, Survivor: Borneo might have just been a show about 16 people trying to stick it out in the elements and judge each other most or least worthy based on their skills. Which is to say that Survivor: Borneo would not have been half as addictive and compelling, and certainly not the stuff of the television phenomenon it was in the summer of 2000. In fact, it wouldn’t even be Survivor: Borneo. It would just be Survivor, that intriguing TV show that was on CBS that one summer. Kid Nation with edible rats.

But Richard did devise Survivor‘s first alliance strategy. And not only that, he pulled it off with style. Cocky, reprehensible, love-to-hate-him style. History books are written by the winners, so it’s easy to forget in retrospect, but Richard Hatch was loathed by the grand majority of Survivor fans as the season went on. From that very first episode when he hung out in a tree while the rest of his tribe worked on building a shelter, content to lay back and observe the pawns he’d be playing with, knowing full well he was pissing them off, knowing (or just projecting an air of knowing) that he could point the finger towards someone else to take the fall anyway. I’d call it Machiavellian if his competition didn’t march so willingly to the gallows. But that’s for the dissent.

Richard’s performance in Survivor‘s first season set the template for the way the game was played for seasons upon seasons to come. Even if the current iteration of the game is working around the idea of big, long-term alliances, it’s still working with Richard’s strategy as a baseline to run counter to. He also set the template for how to be a star while competing: brash confidence, not self-righteousness; people manipulation, not raw survival skills; smarter not tougher; get naked for attention; be the bad guy you wish to root against in the world.

The Dissent

There are more than a few knocks against Richard Hatch as a person. He did end up going to jail for refusing to pay taxes on his Survivor winnings. But this isn’t the RuPaul’s Best Friend Race Hall of Fame. It’s the Reality TV Hall of Fame. Only Reality TV accomplishments count. But we can certainly count Hatch’s performance on Survivor: All-Stars against him. Returning for the show’s eighth season, Hatch was eliminated in the fifth episode, having survived zero Tribal Councils. The argument could certainly be made that once Hatch played a game with other people who knew how to play, he was swiftly defeated. Of course, he’s the one who taught them all how to play, so perhaps that point is moot.

More significantly, Hatch’s behavior towards his old alliance-mate Susan Hawk was fairly disgusting, stripping naked and aggressing her with his junk during a challenge, ultimately leading to Sue quitting the game in a rage. If Hatch returned to Survivor not knowing how to adapt his game strategy to a season full of people who’d studied his tricks, he certainly didn’t know how to modulate his once-celebrated antics in a way that was even close to appropriate.

Bonus Points

While Hatch’s treatment of Sue on All-Stars is indefensible, it still must be pointed out that his visibility as a gay man in 2000 (on CBS, of all networks) isn’t to be underestimated. Particularly since he presented as such a complex, difficult-to-pin-down picture of a gay man. Decidedly gay in affect but not what TV had been used to presenting as “swishy.” Unapologetic about his sexuality, openly talking about his attraction towards guys like Sean and Greg. What got the most attention was Richard’s wary friendship with Rudy, the cantankerous old ex-Navy SEAL who said words like “fag” but still learned to like Richard anyway. That was always a little more pat and condescending than CBS and the Survivor mythology made it out to be. Far more interesting and thorny was the episode where otherwise straight-presenting Greg decided to flirt with Richard as strategy, and Richard knew the score and let him try it anyway. CBS TV in 2000!

Also that time he bit a shark!