In the 23 years that Pasapalabra has been broadcasting in Spain -Antena 3, Telecinco and, again, Antena 3- there have been many duels and many historic jackpots. However, none like the one that is going to live tonight in prime time on Antena 3. As in the best action movies, there can only be one left, or Rafa Castaño or Orestes Barbero. One of the two will win the biggest jackpot in the program’s history tonight: 2,272,000 euros.
But the milestone of these two contestants will not only be surpassing El Rosco, which gives way to the biggest jackpot on the program, the milestone of these two contestants is that they have broken all the known records of the contest and have done so by forging a friendship that is rarely , to say none, had occurred on the show.
Rafa and Orestes are friends, very close friends. It is what they have to have faced each other 193 times and have found in each other their greatest support in one of the most demanding contests that exists right now on television. The hours of study, the wrong words, the idiotic mistakes and the boats lost by the minimum. There is talk of the great duel of Pasapalabra, but in reality today not only 2,272,000 are delivered, today the television story of Rafa and Orestes ends.
“It’s so nice to be with someone who is so good and who brings out the best in you, that what you look at is enjoying it,” Rafa has assured his partner on more than one occasion. In fact, the link between the two is such that they have surprised many times in Pasapalabra looking for the other’s draws so that neither had to gamble on the fearsome Blue Chair. They have even recognized that they have ever thought about sharing the prize, but that two million are many millions:
“It’s a very large amount and sometimes he says that if one takes it, a million for each one, but in the end it’s whoever wins to take it,” Rafa explained in El Hormiguero.
If we were in a bookmaker, the biggest jackpot in the history of Pasapalabra would have a clear favorite: Rafa Castaño. The Sevillian has won 74 times, drawn 64 times and lost 55 in his almost 200 clashes with Orestes.
If you ask them what they take away from Pasapalabra, the two will answer without hesitation for a second that the best thing is their friendship and that the worst thing is “fame”, “that people know you”. The more than 300 Orestes programs on their backs and the epic Roscos by Rafa Castaño have made them true television stars, even being guests of El Hormiguero.
A fame that one carries better than another. Orestes likes people to stop him on the street and tell him how they live Pasapalabra, and Rafa has a little more trouble. Tonight one of the two will see that fame multiplied by a thousand. The interest that there is in which of the two is going to win the jackpot, which has made the contest record scandalous audience data this week, has far exceeded the interest achieved by any other contestant.
It is not for less. The duels between Orestes and Rafa are always accompanied by an emotion that goes beyond the screen. The audience data for Pasapalabra confirm this: it is the most watched program on television with an impressive distance of 14.2 points over its competitor, to which we must add that the famous Rosco has an average of 29, during this duel. 3% audience share and 3,243,000 viewers. and a lot of blame for it, because since the two of them have been around, the audience hasn’t stopped growing, they have it.
Orestes Barbero, a 26-year-old from Burgos with a degree in Hispanic Philology and the eldest of two brothers who has won the hearts of a large part of the audience. His particular humor, his jokes, the way he takes his mistakes or defeats have made him a unique contestant, but also very difficult to replace. That is the tragedy that tonight’s final duel brings with it, that neither Orestes nor Rafa Castaño will be on television anymore. Orestes will remain in more than 360 of his programs, with his 130 wins and 99 draws and, perhaps, with more than two million. But he will no longer play a blue chair or a musical test.
And the same will happen with Rafa Castaño. This 32-year-old from Seville, unlike his partner, is the youngest of two brothers. He loves Literature, so much so that when he finished his Journalism degree he became a partner in the Caótica bookstore, opened five years ago in the Seville capital and in which he has invested much of what he has collected with his shares. in the program.
He is what is called a contest professional. He started at Canal Sur, tried Saber y Ganar and ended up at Pasapalabra, where in his first participation he came up against his brother.
Tonight they will add one more record to their list, that of being the contestant who has taken the most money in Pasapalabra. They don’t talk about tonight or how it was lived, everything is kept under lock and key, but both have already won a prize they never counted on. They are Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer from Pasapalabra.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
