Richard Hatch is calling out Survivor, including its longtime host Jeff Probst.
The Season 1 winner opened up in an interview with TooFab about his reality TV experience.
“Life has always been about opportunity. And I’ve really been intrigued by trying different things and exploring. I’ve had a really, really interesting life. It was sidetracked awfully, horribly by what happened after Survivor,” he said.
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If you didn’t know, Richard was convicted of tax evasion after failing to report approximately $1.4 million in income, including his $1 million winnings from Survivor in 2000. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison and three years of supervised release. After being released in 2009, he was ordered to refile his 2000 and 2001 taxes, but went back to prison for an additional nine months for not doing so.
“I have no idea where I stand with the franchise, but there are the folks behind … Mark Burnett and Jeff Probst, for example, who have acted incredibly irresponsibly with respect to not engaging with me and not correcting their own kind of mistakes that could have prevented my family and life from being devastated,” he said.
“Do I hold a grudge? It’s not a grudge. I just feel it’s indicative of who they are as people. And it’s too bad that they aren’t a little more responsible. They’re in positions of power where they could have made a difference, can make a difference, and they choose not to act. And I think that’s irresponsible. And I think people can can kind of see that that’s how they act, how little they care about the participants that they engage on the show,” he continued.
During his tax evasion trial, Richard‘s lawyer reportedly said he caught fellow contestants cheating and the show’s producers agreed to pay his taxes if he won. Mark testified that Richard‘s contract with the show stipulated he was responsible for taxes.
“That doesn’t have anything to do, from my perspective, with the game. I love the game. I’ve never missed an episode,” Richard went on to say of whether he watches, and if he’d ever return.
“And so, you know, there would be some things that would have to happen were they to call me. And I think those would be simple and reasonable requests. And then I would play if they did.”
“I think Jeff is particularly responsible for problems with the show, and I don’t think he gets it. And his whole holier-than-thou approach to this idea of no villains anymore is really misguided,” he went on.
“I’ve talked about that before, but it’s just … he doesn’t understand the game. And I think people will hear me say that and think, ‘Oh, what an ego. He’s a host.’ He does it well, but he’s not aware of what it takes to play the game well and what’s going on. And I think, frankly, he’s just not bright enough to understand why viewers are drawn to the show.”
“And he misses it. He misses the boat in a big, big, big way when he says things like that and when he’s made some of the changes that he’s made. And I feel bad only for viewers and for participants who are subjected to the changes he makes, instead of his reaching out to actually learn what could be done to make the show even better and better and better, and serve both participants and viewers in a way that would be, respectable,” Richard noted.
Find out what Jeff recently said about Survivor stars going on other shows.
