''Rob Has a Podcast''

'Rob Has a Podcast'
Presentation
Hosted by	Rob Cesternino
Genre	Entertainment
Language	English
Updates	Multiple shows each week
Production
Audio format	Podcast (via streaming or downloadable MP3)
Publication
Original release	February 12, 2010 – present
Cited for	Five-time Podcast Award winner
Website	Rob Has a Website

Rob Has a Podcast (RHAP) is an entertainment podcast hosted by former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino. The podcast primarily provides coverage of strategy-based reality television shows Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race.^[1] In the past, RHAP covered The Celebrity Apprentice, several scripted shows, and other miscellaneous reality shows directly. However, as RHAP has grown, its coverage of scripted shows and miscellaneous reality shows has moved to RHAP's spin-off podcasts, Post Show Recaps and Reality TV RHAP-ups, respectively.^[2]

Overview

Cesternino started RHAP in 2010, in order to cover Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains and the final season of Lost.^[3] He continually expanded the show over the next several years, adding coverage of Big Brother, The Amazing Race and The Celebrity Apprentice. In 2011, he began adding more live coverage using YouTube's Google Hangout feature. The show expanded further with the addition of the weekly "Survivor Know-It-Alls" segment with co-host Stephen Fishbach, during Survivor: Philippines in 2012.^[2] In 2014, Cesternino was able to move to podcasting full-time, earning a living through monthly contributions from voluntary "patrons," advertisements, corporate sponsorships, affiliate products, and side projects like his audiobook series, The Evolution of Strategy.^[4]

Format

When Survivor is on the air, Cesternino records several podcasts about the show each week, most analyzing strategy or discussing highlights. These include:

• "Survivor Know-It-Alls," hosted with Survivor: Tocantins runner-up Stephen Fishbach, airs live immediately following the Wednesday night broadcast of the Survivor episode.
• An "exit interview" podcast, in which Cesternino will record a brief interview with the contestant(s) eliminated that week. Since 2015, this is paired with "This Week in Survivor History", where Cesternino and co-host Jordan Kalish will reminisce about memorable moments from previous seasons.
• A long-form recap and discussion of the episode with a prominent former Survivor player.
• The "feedback" show, in which listeners can call in and ask questions, which are then discussed by Cesternino and a guest, often either a former Survivor player or member of RHAP's stable of co-hosts. A segment on the feedback show is the "Survivor Social Media" in which Cestereno and the guest discuss (usually humorous) post by former Survivor contestants.
• "The Wiggle Room", in which Cesternino discusses the characters and stories of the Survivor season with Josh Wigler, writer for The Hollywood Reporter.
• "Why _______ Lost Survivor," in which Cesternino and writer David Bloomberg review clues from the episode, online bonus material, and social media to analyze the reasons behind the most-recent eliminations.

In addition to these regular Survivor podcasts each week, there are often bonus podcasts about special topics related to Survivor. These podcasts can range from interviews with former contestants, to discussions about larger issues (such as a discussion of sexism on Survivor following several controversies during Survivor: Worlds Apart^[5]).

When Big Brother is on the air during the Survivor off-season, Cesternino records several podcasts each week with special guests and designated "live feed correspondents." Cesternino also provides coverage of Big Brother Canada in the spring. Like in his coverage of the American series, Cesternino interviews Big Brother contestants from both the United States and Canada, prominent RHAP community members, and "live feed correspondents."^[6]

Notable guests

Cesternino has interviewed and worked with numerous Survivor and Big Brother contestants,^[7] including Survivor winners Richard Hatch, "Boston" Rob Mariano, Parvati Shallow, and Sandra Diaz-Twine. Frequent guests include Survivor contestants Stephen Fishbach, Tyson Apostol, Aras Baskauskas, Sophie Clarke, Kim Spradlin, and Andrea Boehlke. The podcast has also interviewed Survivor host Jeff Probst, Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, Amazing Race Canada host Jon Montgomery, and Big Brother Canada host Arisa Cox. Numerous Big Brother contestants have appeared regularly on the show as well, including Ian Terry, Rachel Reilly, Brendon Villegas, Matt Hoffman, Eric Stein and Andy Herren.

Special Events

"Miss Survivor" and "Mr. Survivor"

From 2012 to 2015, Cesternino hosted annual "Miss Survivor" competitions, in which podcast listeners could vote for female Survivor players to compete as finalists in a personality and beauty contest. The first competition, in 2012, allowed listeners to vote in any five women from Survivor's first 23 seasons as a finalist. The finalists would then participate in an interview with Cesternino and campaign for votes to win. This inaugural competition was won by Parvati Shallow, of Cook Islands, Micronesia, and Heroes vs. Villains.

Subsequent competitions limited balloting to female competitors from the previous years' two aired Survivor seasons, and were won by R.C. Saint-Amour (Philippines) in 2013, Andrea Boehlke (Redemption Island and Caramoan) in 2014, and Natalie Anderson (San Juan del Sur) in 2015.

In 2014, Cesternino created a "Mr. Survivor" competition, which followed the same rules and procedures as the "Miss Survivor", but was open to men. The two competitions were won by Malcolm Freberg (Philippines) in 2014 and Spencer Bledsoe (Cagayan) in 2015.

Prior to the 2016 competitions, Cesternino decided to suspend both "Mr. Survivor" and "Miss Survivor" competitions, but allowed a chance of revival in future years.^[8]

Reality Gamemasters

On February 20, 2013, Cesternino launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new project, Reality Gamemasters, in which six reality TV contestants would compete in a game of Risk, which would be filmed and would air on YouTube. On March 22, 2013, the project was successfully funded, receiving $7,036 from 170 individual backers.^[9] The miniseries, directed by Cesternino and Alex Forstenhausler, consisted of six episodes and began airing on June 3, 2013. The contestants included John Cochran, Sophie Clarke, and Stephen Fishbach of Survivor and Ian Terry, Eric Stein, and Matt Hoffman of Big Brother. Andrea Boehlke hosted the competition, with additional Survivor contestants Billy Garcia and R.C. Saint-Amour making guest appearances on the show. Cesternino provided game commentary throughout each episode alongside Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross.^[10] After the Survivor contestants teamed up to take out the Big Brother contestants, Cochran ultimately went on to win the game.

"Survivor Know-It-Alls" LIVE

Since October 2014, Cesternino has hosted at least one live Survivor viewing party and subsequent taping of "Survivor Know-It-Alls" every Survivor season. The event is held twice-yearly in New York City, with some seasons offering a second taping in other cities including Los Angeles and Toronto. Numerous other Survivor contestants have made appearances at the events.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

Related podcasts

Post Show Recaps

In mid-2013, Cesternino announced the launch of a new podcast network and website, Post Show Recaps. Post Show Recaps provides coverage of current scripted television shows such as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead, among others. Post Show Recaps has also covered past shows, including Breaking Bad, Lost, Seinfeld, Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire, and 24.^[16] Occasionally, Post Show Recaps covers movies or entire television series in "one-off" episodes. Cesternino appears as a host on some, but not all of the shows. Each television series covered features at least two regular co-hosts, some of whom cover multiple shows for the network.^[2]

Reality TV RHAP-ups

In 2014, Cesternino partnered with his long time editor and producer, Scott St. Pierre, to start a new podcast channel, titled Reality TV RHAP-ups. The RHAP-ups cover miscellaneous reality TV programming, including The Bachelor and its spinoff shows, international seasons of Big Brother and The Amazing Race, and MTV's The Challenge and Are You the One?. Most of the shows are hosted by other RHAP community members.^[17] In the summer of 2015, Big Brother Canada 3 contestant Jordan Parhar began hosting a weekly podcast on Reality TV RHAP-ups called the RHAPpy Hour. On the RHAPpy Hour, he discusses Big Brother, Survivor, and other miscellaneous shows with a different guest each week. Parhar frequently records the show live and takes calls from listeners.^[18]

The Evolution of Strategy

In 2015, Cesternino began selling his audiobook series, The Evolution of Strategy. With co-host Josh Wigler, Cesternino explored past seasons of Survivor following a detailed re-watch. The series was released in three parts over the course of 2015. Each part consisted of ten chapters, one for each of the first thirty seasons of Survivor.^[3]

The Spyson Hour and News AF

In 2015, Cesternino began The Spyson Hour with Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner and frequent RHAP guest Tyson Apostol and reality TV personality Spencer Pratt from The Hills. The Spyson Hour began as a way for Apostol and Pratt to analyze season four of Marriage Boot Camp, where they had met and become friends as fellow participants. After the season finished airing, Apostol and Pratt continued the podcast, focusing on events in their lives and on zany current events stories, with Cesternino as a moderator.^[19] Pratt left the show in September 2015. The show was retooled to focus on unusual news stories, and accordingly renamed News AF (It's Actual Factual News). Danny Bryson, a longtime friend of Apostol's, was brought in to replace Pratt.^[20]

Reception

Rob Has a Podcast has grown over the years, from a small start-up podcast into an expansive network with an enthusiastic and devoted fanbase.^[21] By 2013, RHAP had over two million downloads on iTunes, and had been watched for twenty-four million minutes on YouTube.^[7] RHAP has won five Podcast Awards: best entertainment podcast (2012, 2014), best video podcast (2013), best produced podcast (2013),^[7] and people's choice podcast (2014). Most notably, RHAP successfully beat hit podcast Serial in the category of people's choice podcast of 2014.^[21]

RHAP recorded its 1000th episode on November 14, 2014 and celebrated its fifth anniversary in February 2015.^[22] In 2015, the podcast was nominated for an Academy of Podcasters award in the entertainment category.^[23]

References

External links

• Rob Has a Website
• Post Show Recaps
• Podcast One
• The Spyson Hour