Richard Hatch

Richard Holman Hatch Jr. (born April 8, 1961) is an American former reality television contestant.

Hatch graduated from Middletown High School (Rhode Island) in 1979.

He studied oceanography and marine biology at the Florida Institute of Technology.

He joined the United States Army in 1980 and became a West Point cadet within the next five years in the Army.

He earned his bachelor's degree in Management and Applied Behavioral Sciences from the National Louis University.

He pursued a master's degree by studying education and counseling at Rhode Island's Providence College.

After the Army, in 1985, Hatch moved to Manhattan and married an unidentified Australian woman.

They had been estranged throughout most of their marriage that lasted for at least ten years.

Hatch's hometown is Newport, Rhode Island, where he resided at the time.

He adopted a seven-year-old boy Christopher in 1998.

Hatch was a corporate trainer and consultant for his own business, Tri-Whale Training, when he first competed on Survivor.

In 2000, he became the first Survivor winner in its debut season, originally broadcast on CBS.

He subsequently competed in All-Stars season of Survivor, the fourth celebrity edition of Celebrity Apprentice, and season 17 of The Biggest Loser.

He served fifty-one months in prison and then, after failing to amend his 2000 and 2001 tax returns, an additional nine months in prison.

Hatch's parents divorced when he was eleven years old.

Also, at the time of Borneo, his mother was a registered nurse, and his father was a retired lab technician.

Hatch is the oldest of four siblings.

In Borneo (2000), he came out as gay onscreen, notoriously went nude on numerous occasions, and used resources to catch edible sea creatures underwater.

Moreover, he defended, formed, and led an alliance with his remaining Tagi tribe members who seemed unable to win individually.

Strategically, after the two tribes were merged into one, to ensure the all-Tagi competition, the Tagi alliance voted out every remaining member of the original Pagong tribe.

As four players remained in the season finale, Hatch, Rudy Boesch, and Sue Hawk plotted to vote Kelly Wiglesworth out, but the idea was abandoned when Wiglesworth won an Individual Immunity challenge called "Fallen Comrades", a trivia quiz mini-game about eliminated contestants.

At a Tribal Council, Hatch and Hawk received two votes each.

In a tiebreaker, Hatch and Hawk were disallowed to vote; Boesch and Wiglesworth voted Hawk out and kept Hatch for the time being.

As one of three remaining players, Hatch strategically dropped out of the season's final Immunity challenge, leaving Boesch and Wiglesworth to compete against each other.

Wiglesworth beat Boesch in the challenge, (as the only player eligible to vote) voted Boesch out, and kept Hatch, hoping to beat him in the finals.

Fourth-placed Sue Hawk infamously called Kelly a "rat" and Richard a "snake" in the final Council.

Hawk further said that, in Mother Nature, snake would eat a rat.

Against the runner-up Wiglesworth, Hatch earned the "Sole Survivor" title and won $1 million and a Pontiac Aztek SUV by a 4–3 jury vote of the final Tribal Council.

Hatch received votes from 3 of his original Tagi tribemates (Rudy, Susan, and Sean) and a vote from Greg.

The other three jury members of the Pagong tribe origins voted for Kelly.

Hatch's victory was controversial at the time since Greg's decisive vote seemed to be cast due to the result of a "pick-a-number" question, but Greg has stated that he had always intended to vote for Richard and his question was his way to poke fun at the serious nature of the Final Tribal Council.

Hatch re-competed in All-Star (2004) as part of the Mogo Mogo tribe.

As before, he caught edible sea creatures with available resources.

Mogo Mogo became weary about his antics, attitude, and constant nudity.

Thus, he became the fourth person of the season and the first member of the tribe voted out, placing fourteenth.

Before his elimination, Hatch was involved in an incident with another former Borneo player Sue Hawk, who reappeared in the same season as part of the Chapera tribe.

Hawk later claimed that, during one of tribal immunity challenges, which was a balance beam mini-game, Hatch's genitals touched her as he passed her by on the course.

The next day, Hawk resigned from the game voluntarily as she was too upset to continue.

Hatch and Hawk discussed the incident in the February 27, 2004, episode of The Early Show, the following day after the Survivor episode aired the incident.

He was convicted with three counts related to attempted tax evasion and fraudulent tax return in January 2006.