The Shadiest Contestants On Survivor

Way back in 2000, a strange yet highly addictive show called Survivor debuted on CBS. Based off the Swedish series Exhibition: Robinson, cameras followed contestants — who were dropped on the island of Borneo with no shelter and minimal food — battle it out for the title of "Sole Survivor" (via The New Yorker). The media outlet noted that although it was not the first reality TV show to air, Survivor helped launch a new format of mostly unscripted programming, proving that "television could provide action without actors." In 2020, the 40th season of Survivor (yes, you read that right) would air, featuring 20 winners from previous seasons competing for $2 million — a.k.a. the biggest prize ever on reality TV.

Survivor has produced many memorable heroes and villains among its hundreds of participants. Some wound up in legal trouble, others tried to lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top, and many simply cracked under the pressure of the game. But who's your favorite player? What about the absolute worst contestant? 

No matter your answer, there's no worry about being voted off the island here. So, hold onto your tribal Buff and take a look at the shadiest contestants on Survivor.

In light of the Dan Spilo controversy of 2019, fans were quick to remember a similar issue from years earlier involving Survivor's first-ever winner, Richard Hatch. During Survivor: All-Stars — the first season with returning players — fellow season one star Sue Hawk (known for her epic freakout) claimed Hatch "sexually violated" her. During a challenge, the notoriously naked Hatch appeared to brush up against Hawk, who later alleged to host Jeff Probst, "I was sexually violated, humiliated, dehumanized and totally spent" (via CBS News). The situation distressed Hawk so much that she voluntarily left the game. However, she later told the news outlet that the two had "come to terms with it and agreed to move forward and past it." 

In contrast with Spilo, Hatch was not kicked off the show due to his behavior, and later denied Hawk's claims while tweeting out in 2019 that he still had no regrets for having played so much of the game nude.

Hatch also made news when he was arrested not once but twice for tax evasion. As reported by Forbes, Hatch served time behind bars for failing to pay taxes on his $1 million earned for winning Survivor. After his first stint in jail, Hatch was then "arrested for violating prison media-access rules." All in all, he spent a total of 51 months in federal prison. It seems he couldn't outwit, outplay, and outlast the IRS.

One of the best parts of Survivor is the chance for contestants (and audiences) to see amazing tropical destinations around the world. In the second season of the series, Survivor: The Australian Outback, the cast and crew made its first trip to the beautiful continent. However, one contestant in particular, Colby Donaldson, had a little too much fun that got him into some hot water. According to the New York Post, Donaldson and fellow player Jerri Manthey "won a reward challenge and were flown via helicopter to Russell Island on the Great Barrier Reef for lunch." Then Donaldson brought back a few pieces of coral for those back at camp.

What he thought was a harmless souvenir turned out to upset quite a lot of people — and for good environmental reason. A spokeswoman for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority listed the infractions: "One is they flew a helicopter around sea-bird rookeries ... it is classified as a particularly sensitive area. And the second is the collecting of coral. The general rule is that you cannot collect coral from any site in the Great Barrier Reef." Oops. Even executive producer Mark Burnett had to step in and apologize, claiming in part, "This was an honest mistake, which we deeply regret."

Luckily for Donaldson, the incident didn't necessarily hurt his post-Survivor career, as the reality star went on to host five seasons of the History Channel's Top Shot.

In Survivor: Cagayan, J'Tia Taylor built a reputation for being "bossy" and "mean," as she herself admitted during an interview with TV Guide. However, she had no regrets for her style of play. But in a moment of frustration, she targeted one of her tribemates, Garrett Adelstein, and created an unprecedented moment in Survivor history.

"I really wanted to hurt Garrett," Taylor told the media outlet. "Garrett was always talking about how he wanted to eat. And, everybody else I didn't really care about because they all just said that they'd vote me out. So, I threw the rice in the fire." Yes, almost the entire supply of rice given to the entire tribe, which was its main source of food on the island. If you competed on the island with her, how would you react? Amazingly, Taylor was not immediately voted off, but failed to make it past the next tribal council.

After the fact, Taylor completely understood why her peers voted her off the island, but justified her infamous rice-throwing to People: "Let me clear something up: rice was not all we were eating. We had coconuts and bananas. We were boiling crabs. We weren't starving." Still, she ultimately conceded, "Probably not the best move ever."

As the nephew of the Survivor superstar Russell Hantz, Brandon Hantz had big shoes to fill when he first appeared on Survivor: South Pacific. According to Entertainment Weekly, the younger Hantz "was portrayed as a leering pervert who could not handle his sexual attraction to another contestant, an unstable entity that would pop off at Tribal Council for no reason, and, finally, a rube who could get suckered into giving away his immunity only to be immediately voted off after doing so." Alright, so not a great start. In spite of this, Hantz returned for a second time on Survivor: Caramoan.

In his next attempt for the million-dollar prize, Hantz appeared to completely snap. As People summarized, Hantz argued with his tribe at camp and dumped the rice and bean supply. Naturally, his competitors were angry, and at the next immunity challenge, his tribe refused to compete and just wanted to vote Hantz out, per The Hollywood Reporter. Sure enough, "Hantz exploded and turned hostile," prompting Jeff Probst to hold a verbal tribal council right then, which sent Hantz home. Did Hantz regret how the show played out? "I'm the first Survivor to ever turn from hero to max-hero," he told THR.

Even before this incident, some fans questioned Hantz's mental and emotional stability, but in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Probst said, "We never let anybody on the show who can't pass the psych test. Brandon passed."

Over a decade into the Survivor franchise, contestants still tried their best to earn any advantage possible. One of the best examples was Peih-Gee Law, who first competed in Survivor: China and made it to fifth place. Gone but not forgotten, fans voted her back for a "second chance" on the 31st season, Survivor: Cambodia. This time around, Law had experience and decided to turn her hobby into an advantage. 

As she explained in an interview with She Knows, producers allowed "luxury items" to contestants during her first season. For Law, this was a jewelry-making kit. Though she couldn't bring the kit along during her second appearance, Law already had a another idea: "I had taken fishhooks that I gold-plated and made them with gemstones and stuff like that. I had fishhook earrings." Pretty sneaky stuff. She even attempted to turn her clothing into functional pieces, admitting, "I had a piece of flint that I had sewed onto my cardigan as a button." 

Did Law's knitting skills help her gain an advantage in Survivor? Well, not exactly. "That one got taken away by production, unfortunately," she added. Maybe it would have helped, but Law sadly became the third person voted off in Cambodia.

Shane Powers earned his grumpy but lovable reputation during his appearance on Survivor: Panama. According to the New York Post, his mood swings, wild behavior, and villainous tendencies may have stemmed from nicotine withdrawal. After "quitting smoking, cold turkey, just to be on the show," the outlet noted, "In a matter of hours he went from 3 packs a day to none." It sounds like an accidental ad against cigarettes. 

After Powers' run came to an end through a dreaded "blindside" — feeling certain you're safe only to be voted out — Powers claimed, like many other Survivor players, that editors had altered his actual personality during an interview on The Early Show: "I think you gain an amazing amount of perspective from being on the show. It's, like, you're civilized and then they turn you into a caveman." 

While you contemplate whether Powers was a hero or a villain, let's catch up with the man himself. A Los Angeles-based radio host off the island, Powers was later photographed nude (like much of his time on Survivor) in an odd photoshoot at the "lowest point in his life" — his father had died, his girlfriend had dumped him, and he'd relapsed. Thankfully doing better these days, he's since collaborated with rapper Tyler, The Creator (via Surviving Tribal), appearing as an "angry golfer" in his "Tamale" music video and even providing backing vocals on a few songs on the Grammy-nominated album, Flower Boy.