Since Richard Hatch was Survivor’s first winner and he starred in two of the best seasons, it makes sense he was inducted into the reality show’s Hall of Fame. Widely considered to be among the show’s other best players, Richard is also recognized as one of the best winners. For that reason, TheThings exclusively interviewed Richard about his role in creating Survivor, as the fans of Jeff Probst’s show know it now.

Thanks to Richard’s Survivor accomplishments, he was chosen to compete as part of House of Villains, and he jumped at the chance. Now that his season is over, it is fascinating to look at what Richard exclusively told TheThings about whether prejudice doomed him during House of Villains.

Richard Hatch Believes That Prejudice Played A Role In His Early House Of Villains Exit

In January 2025, TheThings journalist Matthew Thomas exclusively interviewed the Survivor legend Richard Hatch about his House of Villains experience. During that conversation, Richard revealed his incredibly nuanced views on how prejudice affects reality shows like House of Villains. For example, Richard expressed his belief that reality show alliances are often built because of prejudices.

“Alliances are frequently built and frequently broken because sets of people feel somehow similar to one another, and often quickly, then feel as if they might be better off aligning with different people. I suppose I am attempting to communicate that prejudices within these games and among games’ participants are common, fair play, and tend to be less destructively impactful than are those in real life.”

Richard then exclusively provided TheThings with examples of how prejudice affects reality shows. “For example, the girls may all work together and exclude the guys, or the blacks may all agree to support one another to win the prize, or the gays may all align to weed out everyone else. Within the context of gameplay, these normally taboo reasons to work with some folk and exclude/eliminate others are all fair play in that everyone participating has agreed to knowing a player will do whatever he or she believes is in his or her best interest and likely to get them to the end.”

After explaining his views on how the subject affects reality shows in general, Richard became more specific. Richard exclusively told TheThings that he believed that prejudice played a role in his early House of Villains exit.

Before looking at his comments on how he was affected by prejudice during House of Villains, it is important to not that Richard made sure to put his thoughts in context. “I would say sure it did, though such an answer must be taken with a grain of salt given my answer to the previous question.”

Richard went on to state that he and his castmates have to look for anything to exploit about each other. “Those of us playing these games, if we’re playing well, must closely examine our competitors and consider how we can exploit anything and everything we believe (or can make others believe) about one another. These competitions are not for the emotionally fragile.” Richard then listed how his qualities could be perceived by his castmates.

Richard explained that people’s prejudices about those qualities of his made it a challenge to build bonds he needed to last longer in the game. For example, Richard exclusively told TheThings an example of how those qualities caused there to initially be walls up between him and one of his castmates. “Teresa saw me walk into the house, had no idea who I was, and immediately decided she wasn’t likely to ‘get along’ or ‘connect’ with me, which left me having to immediately overcome that disadvantage or face being treated as the outsider if Teresa made connections with others.”

While Richard believed that prejudice initially was a stumbling block for him and Teresa, he explained that didn’t last.

According to Richard, Teresa breached the gap between them by asking the Survivor legend personal questions. As Richard explained to TheThings, the way he answered Teresa’s questions would decide if he could overcome the prejudices that initially came between them.

“Teresa though, doing what I think she naturally does in an effort to simultaneously test and learn about others, soon asked me if I’m ‘a top or a bottom’ and whether I use poppers. How I would answer her question (and how anyone answers similarly personal questions) can provide the person asking (and those observing) mountains of information useful in these games. Am I shy? Am I confident? Am I fragile? Am I fun? Am I interesting? And so on… Within the context of these games, the observant participant can very quickly gather HUGE quantities of useful information.”

Unfortunately, Richard believes prejudices may have caused more of a problem for him during House of Villains.

When he was talking to TheThings, Richard was asked to gauge how much of a role he thought prejudices played in his early exit. In response, Richard stated that was impossible to know for sure. “I’m sure prejudices are prevalent and play a HUGE role in these games, but it is very difficult, if not impossible, to discern exactly how anyone’s prejudices are specifically wielded.”

However, Richard then discussed how the qualities he was judged for may have played a huge role in when he left the game.

“There is no question that other participants had to wrestle with what it meant to them that this heavy, old, gay dude was spending as much time naked in the jacuzzi and pool as I did. Some may have used my having done that to bond with others who were off-put by it.”

While discussing House of Villains, Richard touched on how much effort he put into observing everything that happened while the show was filming. “I consider myself a particularly introspective guy, and I’m also very observant. While playing these games, I try to remain hyper-focused on everything other participants are saying and doing in order to monitor the environment and identify opportunities to exploit.”

As a result of how observant he was, Richard told TheThings that one of his castmates was notably bothered by those qualities about the Survivor legend.

According to Richard, House of Villains season two winner Safaree Samuels struggled with him. Richard also explained how he reacts to a situation like that.

“There is no question but that Safaree had to mentally wrestle with having an old, gay, white, naked roommate. Watching him wrestle with those concepts was fun and interesting. I’m not defensive, by nature, but within the game, I’m typically even more open, flexible, and inviting than in my real life. So, for me, I often try to help others voice and explore anything they might be thinking about me (or about others) in order to help them feel understood and to learn as much as I’m able about them.”

Finally, Richard explained another way that he believed prejudice affected those around him during House of Villains.

“In the game, I’m certain, Safaree and Tiffany (New York) and maybe Camilla had to wrestle consciously and/or unconsciously with my being an old white guy. What would I know about who these youthful Black folk were or how could/should they trust me? These are all valid questions, and there’s no doubt all of us had to ask ourselves similar questions with respect to who all of us were to one another.”

Richard Hatch Exclusively Explained To TheThings What He Felt Could Be Learned From Reality Show Prejudice

Throughout Richard Hatch’s comments about how prejudice affected him during House of Villains, he never seemed upset by the situation. In fact, Richard repeatedly brought up his belief that discussing prejudice on reality TV could make the world a better place.

After Richard spoke about alliances being built based on prejudice, he touched on an extremely positive topic. While talking exclusively to TheThings, Richard stated that he thought that post-game discussions about player dynamics and decisions could be extremely revealing.

“What can be wonderful about this freedom is the opportunity, post-mortem, to publicly explore and critique players’ choices and reasoning. These exploratory conversations often wander into comparing how choices made within the game would be acceptable or unacceptable outside the game… and why. Meaningful stuff.”

Richard also argued that a study about the prejudice during Survivor‘s earliest seasons would be fascinating.

“Someone capable could write an incredibly interesting and meaningful book about the prejudice openly displayed in the final version of Survivor’s original season and in many of the early seasons that followed.”

Ultimately, Richard made it clear he is unafraid to discuss and examine prejudices. More importantly, Richard expressed that he believed that others should embrace discussing the topic, so their views can grow.