From Fame to Shame: ‘Survivor’ Winner Richard Hatch

Reality TV has provided us with numerous people, events, and moments to fill up two websites: The Reality TV Hall of Fame and The Reality TV Hall of Shame. However, until now there has never been anybody who has appeared in both.

Richard Hatch was the first winner of Survivor, and he set the tone for the way the game would largely be played in the following editions. For that, he was the first person inducted into the Hall of Fame. Now, Hatch has another “first,” though this one decidedly more dubious: He is the first person to ever be inducted into both the Hall of Fame and the Hall of Shame.

Hatch’s Hall of Fame induction came not from his personality, but from his play. His Hall of Shame induction, though, has nothing to do with his game play and everything to do with his life after Survivor.

As most readers undoubtedly know by now, Hatch was accused of failure to pay taxes on his Survivor winnings, pay from a radio show gig he got by virtue of winning Survivor, and some other sources of income. This led to federal charges of tax evasion, along with some added charges related to claims that he took in money for the charity he said he was starting, but used that money improperly for himself.

At first, it looked like Hatch would plead out to a few charges, but he backed out of that deal and faced the full slate when prosecutors threw the book at him. Richard Hatch had to face a very different jury than the one that gave him a million dollars.

In the trial, Hatch and his attorneys made many claims that struck both jurors and trial watchers as simply unbelievable. Hatch claimed he didn’t know he had to pay taxes on his million-dollar prize, claiming CBS had said they would do so. This forced Mark Burnett to testify against Hatch, noting that Hatch signed an agreement before Survivor began, which specifically noted that Hatch would be responsible for paying all taxes on his winnings.

Later in the trial, accountant Richard Plotkin testified that he specifically told Hatch he had to pay taxes on his Survivor prize. Another accountant said she was asked by Hatch to do his taxes twice, once with his Survivor winnings included and once without. She noted that she took her name off the second return and had Hatch sign a letter specifically saying, “This return is not intended to be filed and is simply for your information.” Hatch filed that return.

Thus, instead of having to pay $234,800 in taxes, he claimed a refund of $4,483!

Hatch and his attorneys tried to rebut these claims, but were ultimately unsuccessful. They claimed again that Hatch thought CBS would pay the tax bill. They claimed Hatch was just a lousy bookkeeper. They claimed Hatch was distraught and confused because of false allegations of child abuse leveled against him after he returned from Survivor.

When Hatch himself testified, he admitted he had not declared his Survivor winnings on his tax return. But, he said, he never intended to defraud the government and had tried to find out how much he owed. He claimed to have talked to producers, his accountant, and other contestants. Unfortunately for him, accountants and a producer had already testified against him!

The most stunning claim occurred not on the stand, but in a break in Hatch’s testimony. A defense attorney suggested that Hatch would testify that he caught other players trying to cheat on Survivor and, as a result, producers promised to pay the taxes on his prize if he won. It was a preposterous claim, and in the end Hatch never ended up making such statements on the stand.

In the end, Hatch escaped the charges relating to alleged misuse of charity funds, but he was convicted of the three focusing on his failure to pay taxes – on his million-dollar Survivor prize, $327,000 he earned from the radio show, and $28,000 in rental income. Interestingly, no matter what Hatch might have said about confusion regarding the Survivor million, that could not explain the lack of tax payments on the other two sources of income. Indeed, one juror was quoted as noting that it was the other two sources of income that pushed them to “guilty” on the Survivor prize charge.

We are still awaiting sentencing, which has been delayed while the judge considers what factors to include in his decision. But it is clear that Richard Hatch broke the law and will be punished for it.

Early in the trial, one of Hatch’s attorneys claimed, “Richard Hatch is not a stupid man. He is the world’s worst bookkeeper, bar none.” He may be a lousy bookkeeper, and he is not stupid. But Hatch has shown his egotism time and time again, beginning from the first episode of Survivor. He was smart enough to figure out how to win the game, but perhaps he thought he was smarter than the IRS as well. If that was his thought, he will now have some time behind bars to rethink it.

Obviously, putting Richard Hatch into the Reality TV Hall of Shame is nothing compared to the sentence he will receive from the judge. But it needs to be done, as his behavior certainly deserves it. He will remain in the Hall of Fame as well, for this had nothing to do with his game play. But now he is the first to appear in both locations.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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