“Survivor”'s Richard Hatch Nearly Served as a Game Show Host When “The Weakest Link” Came to the U.S.
“Survivor”'s Richard Hatch Nearly Served as a Game Show Host When “The Weakest Link” Came to the U.S.
Angela AndaloroMon, May 18, 2026 at 1:51 PM UTC
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Richard Hatch (left), Anne Robinson
Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS Photo Archive via Getty; Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
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The Weakest Link came to the United States in 2001, nearly a full year after debuting in the United Kingdom
The game show, designed to heckle the contestants in ways other shows didn't, was originally slated to have a celebrity host
Executive producer Stuart Krasnow talked about the decision to move forward with U.K. host Anne Robinson, who became beloved for her no-nonsense presence on the show
The Weakest Link could have had a very different attitude with someone else at the helm.
While fans of the early aughts game show will remember host Anne Robinson's unflinching presence, the show had almost gone with another host. Stuart Krasnow, executive producer of The Weakest Link appeared on The Game Show Starring Bradley Clarke, where he talked about the early days of the show.
Of how it came to be, Krasnow told Clarke, "It was Jeff Zucker, who was the president of NBC's Third Day... I had worked with him at the Today Show in New York and he said, 'Just come in here, I just want to show you something.' He showed me the pilot and I said, 'I could do this show in two seconds.' And the host on the pilot was Richard Hatch."
Richard Hatch
Credit: Jesse Grant/WireImage
Krasnow explained that Hatch hosted a pilot that focused on expats living in London, "so they had American contestants on the stage of the London version of the show." When Zucker took a closer look, he questioned why they didn't just try it with U.K. host Anne Robinson.
"We went to the negotiations and we made the deal with Ann Robinson, and then Phil Gurin and myself — Phil had done 21 for NBC —and I had to deal with the network, so I met with several producers to partner with. I chose Phil, I just felt he would be the perfect match for the show and for me and we went over and spent a week observing the show in England," Krasnow recalled.
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Krasnow noted he also "had a friendship with Richard" at the time, adding, "I was not part of the position to have Richard Hatch be chosen, that was before I was involved, but I will tell you that I think the thought was they needed somebody who was going to have permission to be mean because it was an anti-game show."
Anne Robinson for "The Weakest Link"
Credit: Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
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The executive producer explained that it didn't have the energy that most traditional game shows have. "This was not the game show where you have somebody who's wonderful, like my favorite Wink Martindale, making people feel good and pumping them up. This was about bringing them down to make them feel really bad and almost stupid about the wrong answer," he noted.
Krasnow added, "Anne was just so mean and to really put a knife through somebody, I think the thought was somebody like Richard Hatch had that permission with the American audience, too. The difference is that some shows, it's just that's the person who is supposed to do it. Ann was the right person."
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
