Original ‘Survivor’ Contestant Kelly Wiglesworth Speaks Out About Claims She Cheated in Exclusive Clip

Season 1 winner Richard Hatch calls the show “a bulls— game” in an exclusive clip from “Dark Side of Reality TV.”

Since its debut in 2000, Survivor is about the ability to outwit, outmaneuver and outlast. However, at least one contestant on that first season of the CBS reality show also received some help from production.

In the exclusive clip above from the upcoming episode of Vice’s Dark side of reality TVKelly Wiglesworth explains how it happened.

“He threw an electric bar on the ground, right in front of my feet,” she says of a producer. “And Richard saw it.”

Richard is, of course, Richard Hatch, the winner of the show’s first season, who is also interviewed for the Vice series. He says he took his observation straight to the top, executive producer Mark Burnett.

“It’s all a bulls— game,” says Hatch, who nevertheless walked away with $1 million.

Joel Klug, who also competed in Borneo, also comments on the illicit food.

Related: The kitchen of hell Home chef recalls thinking she was ‘set up’ against professional chefs: ‘That was a mess!’

“I think it was a Power Bar,” says Klug, “but when you talk about that calorie deficit, that’s enough to really, you know, kick your ass.”

The participants’ diet is often limited to basic products such as rice, but also to foods they can obtain themselves, such as fruit or fish. So yeah, a protein bar would have provided a big boost.

But Wiglesworth says Hatch later claimed people were “leaving me food everywhere.”

Sign up for Entertainment weekly‘s free daily newsletter with breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars and more.

Presumably, Klug says, the complaints about cheating led to Burnett offering to pay Hatch’s taxes on the jackpot if he won. Hatch said in his lawsuit that he thought producers would pay his taxes. Burnett testified that Hatch’s contract made the contestant responsible for taxes, according to NBC.

Hatch won the show, but he was found guilty of failing to pay tax on his winnings in 2006. Wiglesworth came second.

Related: First Survivor winner Richard Hatch announces whether he will return for season 50: ‘I love the game’

In 2021, Wiglesworth told EW that her biggest regret in the fierce competition had nothing to do with a Power Bar and everything to do with the final immunity challenge: “Not giving the win to Rudy,” she said about beating the late Rudy Boesch . face Hatch in the finals.

Wiglesworth, who returned to join the show in 2015, is moving on Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chancethen said she wouldn’t do another round.

But she did offer her advice on changes she should make to the competition: “Bring it back to the original game,” Wiglesworth told EW. “No immunity idols, no second chances, redemptions, etc. There is way too much food. Players have to hunt, build shelters and fires, etc.”

The Dark side of reality TV airs Tuesdays at 9PM ET/PT on Vice.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.