Richard Hatch Completely Agrees With Fans Who Hate This Survivor 48 Moment [Exclusive]

Throughout Survivor’s 25-year history, fans of Jeff Probst’s popular reality show have had a lot to celebrate. Even though people on the show get medically evacuated, and some players have refused to return, there are great reasons why new fans have to figure out which seasons to watch first. Survivor continues to be a success that attracts new viewers because the show has had so many great seasons that have featured legendary players and amazing winners.

On the other hand, Survivor has had some lowlights too. Unfortunately, many fans have been disappointed in a part of Survivor 48 that had nothing to do with the players’ horrible takes. When Richard Hatch was exclusively interviewed by TheThings, Survivor’s first winner completely agreed with fans who hated Survivor 48’s worst moment.

Richard Hatch Hated Survivor 48’s Worst Journey Just Like Fans

During the modern era of Survivor, journeys have become a big part of the show. In some cases, that has been a good thing. For example, during Survivor 47, Rachel LaMont went on a journey and took part in one of the coolest new challenges the show has introduced in years.

However, the unfortunate truth is that journeys can sometimes feel like a distraction from the most important part of the show, the strategy. However, at least fans can rest assured that most journeys have led to telling moments as fans get to see how the players react to being under pressure.

However, Survivor 48 had a journey that most fans remarked was truly terrible. As it turns out, it wasn’t just the fans who felt that way. Instead, Survivor’s first winner ever, Richard Hatch, told TheThings why he hated that journey just like the show’s fans.

Two of the three players who went on the journey were forced to go since they were chosen by a tribe that won a challenge. Once the journey began, all three players were forced to risk their votes. Instead of having to complete a challenge that tested their skills, the players then had to roll dice. Ultimately, two of the players lost their vote because of the game of chance, which took away a lot of their agency in the game.

In April 2025, TheThings journalist Matthew Thomas interviewed Richard Hatch about the current state of Survivor. While talking to Richard, the interviewer spoke about how much they hated that the journey was a game of chance. In response, Richard completely agreed that having the journey involve a dice roll was terrible.

I completely agree with you with respect to the dice.

From there, Richard went on to elaborate more on how he felt about the journey that most fans hated so much.

Throughout the history of Survivor, the show has made some missteps that fans were very vocal about hating. Fortunately for fans, Survivor’s producers have often listened when an element of the game suffered a major backlash from fans.

After Justin Pioppi went on the hated journey, he lost his vote. That ultimately led directly to Justin being voted out at the next tribal council since he didn’t have his vote. In response to that exit, Richard Hatch told TheThings in April 2025 that he would have liked to see Justin fight to save himself during that tribal council more. “I was disappointed with his lack of assertiveness.”

However, Survivor’s producers also have a history of making the same mistakes more than once. While talking about Survivor 48’s journey, Richard exclusively told TheThings that he thought the show’s producers had already learned that adding elements of luck to the game was wrong.

“That’s an example of something I thought they had learned that. I thought they’d understood that those were mistakes to include in the game. They’ve done it before, and the backlash from viewers and Survivor lovers was super, super harsh, deservedly so, I think.”

While still talking about the journey to TheThings, Richard expressed his opinion that it is always a mistake when Survivor’s producers take the game out of the players’ control.

“Anytime the game is intentionally by producers or by production or by design, taken completely outside outside of the participants’ control, I think it undermines what the game is and the participants’ and viewers’ experience of the game.”

Of course, there is also no denying that luck always plays a role in who succeeds and fails on Survivor.

While talking to TheThings, Richard fully admitted that luck affects the game. “I mean, there are certain things that you know, who were you born to? Your mother lived wherever she lived in whatever country and whatever town, and you came out and were part of a family that there are certain things that are inherently chance. You know?”

During the same April 2025 TheThings interview, Richard Hatch expressed frustration with another way he felt the game was taken out of the players’ hands during Survivor 48. Richard was bothered by the fact that Jeff Probst put Joe Hunter on the spot by asking if he wanted to comfort Eva Erickson in front of all the other players.

However, Richard also argued that he believes that luck plays less of a role in Survivor than some fans think.

“I think it dictates it less so than people believe, and here’s why… There’s a certain amount of that kind of just, circumstance that every participant has to come in prepared to accept, I believe. So one of the other things I talk to people about often when they ask about going on the show, adaptability. Awareness and adaptability.”

Richard then explained that the reason why he feels that luck isn’t that big of a factor is that winning the results of the game depends on how the players adapt. “Whatever it is that comes up, you have a certain responsibility to be adept at adapting, really, really proficient at figuring out how to quickly and competently react when things do get out of your control.”

With that in mind, Richard told TheThings that introducing something like the players rolling dice to decide their fate severely limits how much they can adapt.

“Rolling the dice, for example, is just unnecessarily haphazard and, as you said, really undermines someone’s ability to even adapt. You know? You don’t get a choice or a way to to approach it. And then once it’s happened, you get to figure out how you deal with it. But it’s one of those extraordinarily unnecessary things that don’t need to be included in a game that should be left up to the players so that we viewers can review how the players managed themselves as opposed to how much they got stuck with this or that from production.”

Kelley Wentworth Also Was Upset By Survivor 48’s Journey That Fans Hated

Also in April 2025, TheThings journalist Matthew Thomas interviewed Kelley Wentworth about the current state of Survivor. During that discussion, Kelley expressed a similar sentiment about Survivor 48’s controversial journey that Richard Hatch hated.

While talking about the journey to TheThings, Kelley explained that she didn’t like how little control over their fate that the players had.

The dice game, the ability for people to not choose to lose their vote or not lose their vote, that’s where I start to have an issue.

Kelley Wentworth went on to explain to TheThings that the problem with the journey is that the players were forced to put something so valuable on the line. To do that, Kelley explained how important the players’ votes are in the game.

“Your vote is currency. Like, Survivor is based around voting other people out.”

Kelley finished by pointing to the exact part of the journey that made it a mistake for the team behind Survivor. “And so when you go and you have to roll dice or you have to play a certain game, and they don’t say, ‘You can play this game and choose to lose your vote or you cannot play and keep it.’ When they just say, ‘You have to play and you’re gonna lose it or you’re gonna keep it.’ That’s where I think we’ve gone too far.”