Off the train and without giving his competitor the opportunity to start. Rafa Castaño’s (Seville, 32) victory in Pasapalabra was unique for many reasons. He was the winner of the largest jackpot in the program’s history, €2,272,000. His confrontation with Orestes Barbero in 197 broadcasts in the final phase, to which must be added the 41 occasions on which they have already been measured on Telecinco, is also the history of Spanish television competitions. This Thursday, in a prime-time program watched by 4,578,000 viewers (a spectacular 37.4% audience share), Pasapalabra viewers were able to see the Sevillian explaining the 25 words of Rosco del Jerk from A to Z without completing even once over and hardly hesitating.
“Like every day, I was focused,” Rafa Castaño told EL PAÍS this Friday. So what do you think made the difference in accomplishing this unprecedented feat of solving the whole Rosco in one fell swoop? “I think it’s more the dynamic of the Roscos over the past few weeks where encyclopedic terms might have been more accessible from time to time. I’ve been studying and reviewing quite a bit of lists of dictionary words and encyclopedic words that I had for the past few weeks, and I was lucky enough to hit that study,” he reflects, more calmly, now.
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Castaño is already a classic among television competitions. 13 years ago he started trying his luck on the Canal Sur show Guess who is who. Between 2014 and 2015 he participated as dean of the Spanish competitions Saber y Ganar. There he reached 100 programs in two rounds and was named Supermagnificent after winning the Magnificent tournament (entrants who exceed €7,000 in accumulated prize money) of his year. Pasapalabra came out when it was still on Telecinco and was presented by Christian Gálvez. There he appeared three times: in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In this last phase he met Orestes Barbero for the first time and appeared with him in 41 programs until a judgment forced Telecinco to stop broadcasting the program. Barbero and Castaño were then the first contestants on El tirón, the question-and-answer room with which the channel filled the void left by Pasapalabra. Already on Antena 3 and with Roberto Leal as moderator, Rafa Castaño returned to the competition on June 1, 2022.
Rafa Castaño and Orestes Barbero, in the program “Pasapalabra” that will air this Thursday.
Along with their participation in Antena 3 and Telecinco, Orestes and Rafa faced each other in 238 afternoons in Pasapalabra. The victory of the second this Thursday implies the elimination of the program of the first according to the rules of space. Therefore, this climax had a bittersweet aftertaste for the audience and also for the winner himself. His first thoughts when Leal said that the last answer was correct were of his opponent: “To be honest, Orestes keeps coming to me at this moment make sense, hence my seemingly cold reaction. It’s not that he was shocked, although I imagine it was a bit, but that he was a bit sad because he didn’t get what he deserved,” explains the Sevillian.
The healthy competition and friendship forged between Seville and Burgos over these months was evident on screen. Because of this, Castaño apologized to Barbero when he won. “I know it was a very difficult drink for him. I told him that I sincerely hoped that in a few years he would come back to Pasapalabra in a fairly large boat and take it with him because it’s only fair that he takes his Rosco. He seems to me to be the best candidate in Pasapalabra’s history and I hope life rewards him as he deserves,” said Rafa Castaño. After the victory of his opponent, Orestes, the contestant with the most participation in the program, congratulated the winner and asked the viewers not to feel sorry for him, who had won his previous prize of 215,400 euros.
Rafa Castaño and Orestes Barbero hug in the presence of Roberto Leal after the first won the “Pasapalabra” jackpot.
The confrontation between Orestes and Rafa was experienced with particular intensity on Twitter, where dozens of followers met every afternoon to comment on their matches. As on other occasions, some of these comments suggested that Castaño’s recent donuts have been a little easier than Barbero’s. “You have to put the comments into perspective. I’m sure a lot of the people writing this didn’t really know those words, and if they do, I invite them to appear on the show because they’re missing out on a golden opportunity to make money,” responds the winner on charges of favoritism and Tongo.
Rafa Castaño thus belongs to the select group of Pasapalabra winners. In this second phase of the competition on Antena 3, only three participants managed to complete the Rosco: Pablo Díaz (1,828,000 euros), Sofía Álvarez (466,000 euros) and Castaño. Other legendary winners of the competition included Fran González (€1,542,000), Paz Herrera (€1,310,000), David Leo (€1,866,000), Antonio Ruiz (€1,164,000), Lilit Manukyan (€318,000), César Garrido (€1,524 .000) and Eduardo Benito. who, in 2006 and with Jaime Cantizano as the host, was the winner of the show’s biggest jackpot to date, €2,190,000.
How much remains Treasury
Castaño had achieved 127,000 euros with this participation in Pasapalabra. However, if you win the jackpot, that money doesn’t end up in your pocket. The 2,272,000 euros he won will not reach him either, but a significant part will have to be spent on taxes. On the one hand, the tax office keeps 26% of the profit, which is reserved directly by the producer. The rest of the money is taxed based on the applicant’s Autonomous Community, in this case Andalusia, at an income tax rate of 23.7%, the maximum rate there. In other words, after deducting the relevant withholdings, Rafa Castaño is left with €1,212,816 from the Pasapalabra jackpot.
Rafa Castaño after winning the ‘Pasapalabra’ jackpot.
What will Rafa do with the money? “Now I need a few months to think about it calmly, it’s a lot of money, I have a lot of time ahead of me. But of course invest the money in a diversified manner and think long-term,” he adds.
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