Jeff Probst has made plenty of changes to Survivor over the years, but few generated as much conversation as dropping four words from his vocabulary.
For years, Probst famously welcomed contestants to challenges with his signature “Come on in, guys!” But in 2021, the longtime host stopped using “guys,” explaining at the time that he wanted the show to use more inclusive language.
The decision divided viewers, particularly those who considered “guys” a gender-neutral term and had grown attached to the phrase after hearing it for decades. Probst revealed on the Popcast podcast on Thursday, September 24, whether he wishes he’d handled things differently.
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Does Probst regret dropping ‘come on in, guys’?
“Not one bit,” Probst said when asked if he regretted the change. “It was the right decision for me.”
That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t reconsider some things. He admitted if he had to change anything, he wouldn’t have made a discussion out of the decision. Probst recalled receiving that criticism from an unnamed movie producer, who told him, “the mistake you made is you made it about you.”
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“And you should have just done it and never said anything,” Probst recalled him saying. “Just stop saying it. He was right.”
Why did Probst stop saying ‘guys’ on Survivor?
Probst said conversations with his children also influenced his thinking at the time. His daughter told him she didn’t consider “guys” gender neutral, even though Probst acknowledged that others disagree.
“I wanted to be a dad that heard my kids, and so I made the decision, if that matters to you. I’m in,” he explained.
Years later, Probst said he still notices how frequently other people use the word—but doesn’t believe they’re doing anything wrong. “I don’t judge anybody for saying it. It’s a universal word,” he said. “I’m glad I don’t say it.”
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