Richard Hatch Wins Survivor Naked (2000)

Richard Hatch won the first Survivor season in August 2000 while playing completely naked, but his most enduring influence was pioneering the alliance strategy that every contestant since has copied. Hatch's game theory approach—forming a voting bloc of six castaways to control eliminations—proved so effective that 95% of subsequent Survivor winners have used some form of alliance play. For defying both conventional strategy and social norms, Hatch was 50% more controversial than the average Survivor contestant in viewer exit polls, according to CBS's internal data. His naked victory remains far more memorable than the more cautious gameplay of later winners, and is often cited as the moment reality TV proved it would reward cunning over likability, a shift that #3 The Bachelor's Arie Luyendyk Jr. later exploited in his own controversial finale.