• December 25, 2000
• Vol. 54
• No. 27

Richard Hatch

The Man Who Proved the Victor on Survivor Gave New Meaning to 'Naked Ambition'

We Americans love sport, the Gipper, fair play. But the 13-week summer run of CBS's Survivor drove home a less noble truth: Winning is everything. As the $1 million tropical-island wilderness challenge devolved into a game of conspiratorial whispering, petty vengeance and double-crossings among the 16 contestants, a villain emerged. Richard Hatch, a 39-year-old corporate trainer from Middle-town, R.I., proved so cagey that in the Aug. 23 finale watched by more than 50 million, cocontestant Susan Hawk, 39, a blunt Wisconsin truck driver, dissed him as "a snake who knowingly went after prey." Viewers hissed their own dislike for Hatch. But the snake won. "I've always enjoyed figuring people out," says Hatch. "Who are you and why are you impacted by me the way you are?"

Apart from spearfishing and strolling the beach without clothes (a habit that led David Letterman to christen him "the fat naked guy"), Hatch devoted much of his time on Survivor's Pulau Tiga location to honing in on the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents and forging alliances accordingly. "He knew exactly what he was doing," says Rudy Boesch, the blustery 72-year-old Navy SEAL who seemed to regard the gay Hatch as some perplexing island fauna. Hatch, in turn, falsely let Rudy think he could count on his support. "He out-and-out lied to win," says neurologist Sean Kenniff, 31, a Survivor participant who nonetheless admires Hatch's smarts.

Back in the rat race, the snake prospered. Hatch says he has practically doubled his win and is booked into 2002 for corporate training and speaking engagements. ("And, of course, my rates have gone up quite a bit," he adds.) He has written a book (101 Survival Secrets), been a guest host on Live with Regis, a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards and is hobnobbing with celebs so much that, he offers, "Donald Trump and I are on a first-name basis." Hatch is also slimmer than during his Survivor TV star days, having undergone liposuction and tummy tightening, he says, to remove folds of flesh left over from his prefame high of 360 lbs. But these days Richard is showing less lion-like craft and more heart. He is launching a wilderness-training program for teens (he'll be one of the guides) and hopes his new riches will provide a "better life" for himself and his adopted son Christopher, 10. And he wants love. "I don't care about the money," he says. "I don't care about the TV roles. I want to meet him." After all, no man—not even Richard Hatch—is an island.