In the 23 years that Pasapalabra has been broadcast in Spain -Antena 3, Telecinco and, again, Antena 3- there have been many duels and many historical boats. However, none like the one that will be lived tonight in the prime time of Antena 3. As in the best action movies, only one can remain, or Rafa Castaño or Orestes Barbero. One of the two will take tonight the largest jackpot in the history of the program: 2,272,000 euros.
But the milestone of these two contestants will not only be to overcome El Rosco that gives way to the biggest jackpot of the program, the milestone of these two contestants is that they have surpassed all the known records of the contest and have done so forging a friendship that rarely, if any, had happened in the program.
Rafa and Orestes are friends, very friends. It is what he has to have faced on 193 occasions and to have found in each other his greatest support in one of the most demanding contests that exists right now on television. The hours of study, the failed 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," says Rafa of his partner. In fact, the link between the two is such that they have surprised many times in Pasapalabra looking for the draws of the other so that neither had to play it in the fearsome Blue Chair. They have even acknowledged that they have ever thought about sharing the prize, but that two million are many millions:
"It is a very large amount and sometimes he says that if one takes it, a million for each one, but in the end it is whoever wins to take it," confirms Rafa.
If we were in a bookmaker, the biggest jackpot in the history of Pasapalabra, I would have a clear favorite: Rafa Castaño. The Sevillian has won 74 times, drawn 64times and lost 55 times in his almost 200 meetings with Orestes.
If you ask them what they take 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 programs of Orestes on their backs and the epic Roscos of Rafa Castaño have made them real 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 Pasapalabra lives, and Rafa costs him a little more. Tonight one of the two will see that fame multiplied by a thousand. The interest in which of the two is going to take the boat, which has made this week the contest mark scandalous audience data, has far exceeded the interest achieved by any other contestant.
No wonder. The duels of Orestes and Rafa are always accompanied by an emotion that goes beyond the screen. The audience data of Pasapalabra confirm it: 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 during this duel of 29.3% of screen share and 3,243,000 viewers. And a lot of blame for it, because since they are both the audience does not stop 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 much of the audience. His particular humor, his jokes, his way of taking mistakes or defeats have made him a unique contestant, but also very difficult to replace. That is the tragedy that brings with it the final duel tonight, that neither Orestes nor Rafa Castaño will be on television anymore. Orestes will stay in his more than 360 programs, with his 130 wins and 99 draws and, perhaps, with more than two million. But a Blue Chair or a musical test will no longer be played.
And the same will happen with Rafa Castaño. This 32-year-old Sevillian, 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 raised with his participation in the program.
He is what is called a professional of the contests. He started in Canal Sur, tried in Saber y Ganar and ended in Pasapalabra, where in his first participation he came to face his brother.
Tonight they will add to their list one more record, that of being the contestant who has taken the most money in Pasapalabra. They do not talk about tonight or how it was lived, everything is kept under lock and key, but both have already taken a prize that they never had. They are the Rafa Nadal and the Roger Federer of Pasapalabra.
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