Many fans of TV's "Survivor" reality shows probably are wondering whether Richard Hatch, who won $1 million in the show's first season will "survive" the charges he's facing.

Hatch faces 10 charges, including tax evasion, filing a false tax return, wire fraud, bank fraud and mail fraud for allegedly not paying taxes on his "Survivor" prize, income from a radio show and rental income. He faces a maximum of 75 years in prison if found guilty on all charges, plus millions of dollars in fines.

The big question is if Hatch became a victim of greed, stupidity or both.

If he eventually is convicted in court, Hatch almost certainly will regret his decision in March to back out of a deal in which he would have pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion, presumably in return for a lighter sentence.

But Hatch, 44, seems hellbent on building upon his survivor image. However, that image is less formidable than the survivor image of the Internal Revenue, which, like the Energizer battery bunny, just keeps on going and going and going. . . .