Original Survivor contestant Kelly Wiglesworth speaks out on claims she cheated in exclusive clip

Since it debuted in 2000, Survivor has been about the ability to outwit, outplay, and outlast. However, at least one contestant on that first season of the CBS reality show also had some help from production.

In the exclusive clip above of the upcoming episode of Vice's Dark Side of Reality TV, Kelly Wiglesworth explains how it happened.

"He threw a power bar on the ground, like, right at 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 that 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 unauthorized eating.

"I think it was a Power Bar," Klug says, "but if you're talking about that calorie deficit, that's enough to make you really, ya know, kick some ass."

The diets of contestants are often limited to staples like rice, as well as food they can obtain on their own, like fruit or fish. So, yeah, a protein bar would have provided a big boost.

But Wiglesworth says that Hatch later claimed people were "leaving me food everywhere."

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Supposedly, Klug recounts, the cheating complaints led to Burnett having offered to pay Hatch's taxes on the jackpot if he were to win. Hatch said in his trial that he thought producers were going to pay his taxes. Burnett testified that Hatch's contract declared the contestant responsible for the taxes, according to NBC.

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

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 of beating the late Rudy Boesch to face Hatch in the finals.

Wiglesworth, who returned to compete on the show in 2015, on Survivor: Cambodia—Second Chance, said then she would not be doing another round.

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

The Dark Side of Reality TV airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Vice.