If you’ve been tuning in to Australian Survivor: Blood Vs. Water this season, you may have noticed a little change in the way host Jonathan LaPaglia welcomes the castaways into challenges.
For years, the standard greeting has been “come on in, guys!”, but in the current season, JLP has dropped the “guys” from his greeting.
In a recent chat with The Daily Telegraph, JLP explained that “with the ever growing conversation around inclusivity, it was a natural progression to adapt our language to reflect this.
He went on to say that “the US has also adopted a similar change”.
Fans of the Jeff Probst hosted US Survivor franchise will recall the conversation in season 41 that led to Probst dropping “guys” from his welcome, also.
“I love saying it, it’s part of the show,” Probst said at the time. “But I, too, want to be of the moment. So my question to you is, in the context of Survivor, is a word like ‘guys’ OK, or is it time to retire that word?”
There was some debate around the usage.
One player, Evvie, said that she felt okay with Probst continuing to use “guys”, saying: “It’s such a signature expression, and I, as a woman and as a queer woman, do not feel excluded by ‘guys’.”
They put the conversation to rest, but in the days that followed, another contestant, Ricard Foye, said that he felt it was time to retire “guys” from the Survivor vocab.
“I don’t think we should use the word ‘guys’,” he said. “I don’t really agree with it. The reality is that Survivor has changed over the past 21 years, and those changes have allowed all of us — all of these brown people, black people, Asian people, so many queer people — to be here simultaneously.”
Probst said that he appreciated Ricard taking the time to consider his position and to voice his opinion.
“I love that you thought about it,” he said. “I love that you had the courage within a million-dollar game to stand up. I’m with you. I want to change it. I’m glad that was the last time I will ever say it.
“I realise in this moment somebody right now is on social media saying ‘Aw, he caved,’ @jeffprobst on Twitter. I’ll probably never read it anyway. All right. I love that. We just made a change. From now on, it is: ‘Come on in.’”
Australian Survivor airs at 7.30pm, Sundays and Mondays, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
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