Reality AF: Rob Cesternino on Survivor and His Podcasting Empire – Part Two

Then during the first summer that there was no Survivor I’m like, “Hey, I like Big Brother, too. I’m going to talk about Big Brother.” We didn’t have extensive coverage of Big Brother during that summer of 2010, but the coverage was something that would eventually continue to grow. I’m not as involved with the Big Brother coverage but it’s really become, I think, the most important Big Brother coverage that’s on the internet.

Scripted podcasting is hard because on reality shows there’s a format for the episode. I think the shows that people really want to have scripted TV podcasts about are the ones where people have an opportunity to discuss all the hare-brained theories people might have.

Paste: Tell me about building the RHAP community. Was that intentional, or did that just happen?

Rob Cesternino: It’s just happened organically. There was never a master plan. In 2014 is when I first started becoming a full-time podcaster. I had been employed on-and-off throughout the first three or so years of doing the podcast. My son, Dominic, had just been born in September of 2013. I ended up losing my job in December of 2013 and I felt like a real failure. Instead of going and trying to find my next job, I said, “Okay, well, this is the chance to turn Rob Has a Podcast into what I do full-time.”

I had been approached by Patreon in 2013. There was somebody who was one of the early employees of Patreon who was a Big Brother fan, and they said, “Hey, you should be using this.” I’m like, “I’m not going to charge people. Nobody’s going to pay for the podcast.” Then I put out an ask on the podcast. I was overwhelmed by how many people said, “I don’t want this to go away. I’m here to help support this vision that you have.” It was really amazing, and what I did not expect was for one of the early perks to be, “Hey, let’s make a Facebook group. Let’s put in all of the people who are the lovers and the supporters of this podcast.”

It was such a force-multiplier to have the most excited people in the world about this thing to now be all in one place, and now, they’re all bouncing off of each other and getting each other more excited, and talking. It was a small group; it was in the hundreds, not in the thousands, and everybody got to know each other extremely well during that time. It was such an exciting and fun period for the podcast because we really just had so much support, and everybody was so excited about every new thing that we were doing. 

I think that the best example of what we were able to do was in 2015. In the fan vote for Podcast of the Year, we beat out Serial, which was bringing a lot of attention to podcasting, to win the award in 2015. The RHAP community had a mission, and they would just vote every single day. We had so much support within our world for what we were doing, and so many people were excited about it. It was just a very special time.

Paste: You’re celebrating 15 years of Rob Has a Podcast this year. Are you where you imagined you’d be when you started way back in 2010?

Rob Cesternino: No, because I always thought that, “Wow, this was a great idea. Too bad I started it right when Survivor is about to end.” I feel like the history of Survivor has always been like, “Well, it’s going to go for another year or two.” I remember thinking back in the single digits, when I was on Survivor six and like, “Wow, I’m glad I got to do Survivor before it got canceled.” It’s funny that now as we’re heading towards 50, it’s almost like they don’t even talk about the end now. It has become such an institution.

Survivor 48 and 50

Paste: What’s your take on season 48 so far? 

Rob Cesternino: It’s been a wild start to season 48 with the one tribe going to the first three tribal councils, and when that happens, we really get to know a few of the characters particularly well. I think that we have a real generational character in Sai, somebody that we won’t soon forget, and we had an incredible moment with Mary hitting the Shot in the Dark. Then this double tie-break overtime where Cedrek had to cast the deciding vote against Justin. We were in rarefied air with a historic episode recently. 

Paste: Justin was your winner pick for 48, but he’s out. Who’s your new winner pick? 

Rob Cesternino: I think Kamilla is somebody who seems like she knows the game well. I don’t think people are going to start targeting her at the merge, and then she could be the person who, when you look up at the final three, there she is, and she’s the next winner of Survivor.

Paste: Let’s look to the future of Survivor. If you were Jeff Probst, who would be the first five people you’d call to be on season 50? 

Rob Cesternino: I feel like there are some really great people who deserved a shot to come back and haven’t yet. I think that Christian (Hubicki) and Angelina (Keeley) from Survivor: David vs. Goliath really got hosed because of the beginning of the New Era when Jeff wasn’t bringing in former players. You’ve also got New Era people like Q (Burdette), who is just electric, you have Carolyn (Wiger), who’s such a breakout. So fun to have her. And Jesse Lopez.

Paste: That’s three New Era players and two from Season 37. I’m surprised you don’t think Jeff is immediately thinking of anybody prior to season 20.

Rob Cesternino: I don’t know how they’re thinking about doing it. Is it just going to be second chances people? Are they going to call just winners? Are they saying, “Well, we don’t want people who have played four and five times before.” They’ve been cagey about how they want to cast 50, because, really, it’s such an embarrassment of riches where you have 800 people to be able to pick from, and you could skin it 50 different ways.

Paste: Is choosing 18 players from the entire history of Survivor an impossible challenge, or do you think that Jeff could possibly expand the roster, or do something unusual?

Rob Cesternino: I don’t think that it’s necessarily locked in at 18. The only all-star season that had 18 was the original Survivor: All-Stars. So they’ve had 20 on Survivor in these bigger all-star seasons. I think 20 is on the table. I think 21 is on the table. I think you could have three tribes of seven. I don’t think it’s impossible to have three tribes of eight.

Paste: Do you expect a lot of twists for 50, or do you think it’s possible that they’d go to a more old-school format?

Rob Cesternino: I feel like that every time they do an all-star season, they try to throw a lot at the players. Game Changers had so many advantages. Winners at War had Fire Tokens and the Edge of Extinction. I think that there’s certainly an argument that you could make of like, “Hey, we’ve got all the best players. They know what to do. They’re not going to be boring. Let them cook.” I suspect, though, that they’re going to probably say, “Hey, this is our 50th season. Let’s put our best stuff out there that we’ve been cooking up, and then throw it at them to see what they’re able to do with it.”

Paste: What gameplay element from a past Survivor season would you like to see return in 50? Please tell me it’s the Medallion of Power (this was said in jest).

Rob Cesternino: What if they brought back the One World twist and have the tribes all on the same beach? Doing it with an all-star season would be an interesting spot because then it’s going to be like, “Oh, why is this person going over and talking to the person from that tribe?” One World, I think, got a raw deal because the season was not that exciting, but I think that it’s still a fun idea for Survivor.

Terry Terrones is a Television Critics Association and Critics Choice Association member, licensed drone pilot, and aspiring hand model. When he’s not dreaming of being on Survivor, you can find him hiking in the mountains of Colorado. You can follow him on Twitter @terryterrones.

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