It pays to be ruthless.
Richard Hatch, the scheming, openly gay corporate trainer from Providence, R.I., was crowned sole “Survivor” last night on CBS.
Hatch, 39, won a million dollars and a new Pontiac Aztek SUV after narrowly defeating fellow castaway Kelly Wiglesworth 4-3 in a final tribal vote cast by the last seven castaways to be voted off the “Survivor” island.
His victory, revealed a few minutes before 10 p.m., put an end to a week of intense speculation and hype as the sizzling summer series came to a close after 13 high-rated episodes.
During the show’s three-month run, Hatch emerged as the castaway that viewers loved to hate because of the schemes he devised for forming alliances aimed at systematically eliminating rivals whose skills made them a threat to his chances at winning the grand prize.
“I wouldn’t change anything that I did,” Hatch told the jury as he argued his case last night for winning it all.
Some jurors, explaining why they were voting for Hatch, acknowledged his deviousness, but nevertheless gave him credit for the way he played the game.
For her part, Wiglesworth, the 23-year-old river guide from Kernville, Nev., who wears an elaborate tattoo on her lower back, won two crucial immunity challenges in the first hour of last night’s two-hour finale episode.
The pair of victories extended her immunity-challenge winning streak to five and propelled her into the final two.
In fact, Wiglesworth was the only one of the 16 castaways who never received a negative vote during any tribal council during any of the show’s episodes.
Her success in both challenges last night also forced the elimination of both Rudy Boesch, the 72-year-old ex-Navy SEAL who many “Survivor” fans guessed would win it all, and Susan Hawk, the tough-talking Wisconsin truck driver with the Midwestern accent.
Hawk, who was the first of the final four castaways to be voted off last night, stunned viewers with an invective-filled speech during the show’s final tribal council in which she accused Wiglesworth of betraying her.
“If I were ever to pass you along in life again,” Hawk said, addressing Wiglesworth, “and you were laying there dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water.”
“I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you.”
She then called Wiglesworth a rat and Hatch a snake.
“I feel we owe it to the island’s spirits that we have learned to come to know to let it be in the end the way Mother Nature intended it to be: For the snake to eat the rat,” she said, explaining her decision to vote for Hatch.
“Survivor” leapt quickly to the top of the Nielsen charts soon after its premiere May 31.
In recent weeks, the show had averaged around 28 million viewers.
Last night’s audience was expected to be about 40 million viewers. The ratings will be available this afternoon.
With the first “Survivor” now concluded, plans are already underway for “Survivor II,” to be filmed this fall in the Australian outback. It is expected to premiere next February.