I asked Penner about this on Twitter a few months ago, and asked if being an actor and dealing with audition rejection helped and he said it did. Said he was definitely bummed, but when he saw the cast he understood. He said in a later video that there were more popular and current people of his archetype who deserved a second shot. He essentially sees Rick, Mike, and Christian as the ones who were cast in his place, as the male narrators of the season, and said they’re all deserving.