Survivor winner Richard Hatch has given an interesting interview to the Domenick Nati Show that sheds some light on the Winners at War cast — claiming he was recruited for the show before being mysteriously dropped.
The first winner of the reality competition series claimed, “I was invited and I agreed to participate and I went through all of the pre-show evaluations.”
He went on to say that, “In fact, they paid for my physical and my pre-production work. So, there’s no question about it. They invited me, I did all of the pre-work, and I was cleared.”
There had indeed been a lot of Survivor rumors floating around that Hatch would become one of the 20 Winners at War cast members, but then it shifted to Amber Mariano getting added to the group.
There has been a lot of mystery surrounding the situation and Richard Hatch had a lot more to say about getting play on Season 40.
“Everybody who was in charge of deciding who wants to come… I was the only participant that every single one of them wanted me to particpate. And then two days before the show… two days before I was scheduled to fly out to California… they called and told me and they called and told Tina, the second winner, and told us that the show is paused.”
Below is the full interview where Hatch speaks about Survivor 40 and how he thought he was going to play. He goes on to say that it was the last time he heard from the show before filming began without him.
Richard Hatch was the original Survivor winner
It was way back in spring 2000 when Survivor: Borneo was filmed. Sixteen contestants took part in a new type of reality competition show for the American audience and CBS struck gold.
Richard Hatch became a controversial character on the show, but he figured out how to play the game quite quickly. Some viewers might even say that he completely dominated Season 1 of the show.
At the vote, Hatch won the $1 million prize by a 4-3 jury vote over Kelly Wiglesworth.
Other notable castaways that took part in that first season were Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch, Sue Hawk, Jenna Lewis, and Gervase Peterson. Colleen Haskell — who was also part of the cast — appeared on That ’70s Show and in the film The Animal.
Hatch became a household name due to the success of that first season and now Survivor 40 is currently airing on CBS.
Below is an interview that Richard Hatch, host Jeff Probst, and executive producer Mark Burnett did for the show, and is well worth watching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZnhIJc2PY
Survivor: Winners at War rolls on
Despite Richard Hatch not being a part of the Survivor 40 cast, the show has still started off very strong for CBS and its viewers.
It definitely would have been interesting to see what the original winner of the show could have done against winners from different eras of Survivor, but it just isn’t going to happen for the viewers.
Still, the season premiere was pretty good, with two people already getting voted off.
Survivor: Winners at War airs Wednesday nights at 8/7c on CBS.
All episodes of Survivor are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.