“There is no video game more perfect than life.” It is the first sentence that the viewer hears in Time Zone, the new program that has just landed on HBO Max and in which, with video game aesthetics and language, ten famous participants will try to beat the Master of Time, which he embodies eSports presenter and streamer Cristinini.
“The philosophy of the program is, of course, totally linked to video games and in this case the main handicap that the contestants must face is time management, as important as passing the tests”, warns Cristinini about this format created by Zeppelin (Banijay Iberia) and Endemol Shine Nederland,
The central elements of the program are the so-called “time zones”, circles scattered around immense abandoned facilities. When players are inside them, time stops to reactivate the moment they get out of them. Through games of mental and physical skill, players must overcome the eight levels of the program by completing numerous missions in inhospitable settings, such as sandstorms or smokescreens, as well as looking for rewards in the form of extra time or stealing minutes from his companions. In each level, the player with the least accumulated time on their timer will be eliminated and the one who reaches the final must face the Master of Time in a duel.
Cristinini wanted to contribute his “grain of sand” to the Master of Time by giving it character and attitude: “I wanted this character to be playful, to have fun annoying and making life miserable for the contestants in complicity with the viewer, although deep down he did not He’s a bad person.”
With the start of the game, it seems that the contestants prioritize competitiveness over solidarity, although Cristinini disagrees. “In time management, for example, they can help save it by showing solidarity with each other. If they are individualists, they all lose”. That was the mechanics that she wanted to be present in the program, although the presenter acknowledges that “later recording we found the position that they were quite individualistic for better or worse, but it was not planned that way.”
“What I find very interesting about Time Zone -continues the presenter- is that profiles of very different contestants have come together, which has nothing to do with each other, and that they have taken the program as a great personal challenge. , as i life was in it; they got their batteries from the first test of the first program”. Among these contestants are the model Ángela Ponce, the actor Antón Lofer, the rap artist El Chojín, the ex-boxer and businesswoman Joana Pastrana or the commentator Cristóbal Soria.
Under Cristinini is Cristina López Pérez (Tarragona, 1989). She has more than 3.3 million followers on Twitch (she participates in the famous Kings League) and almost 1.4 million on YouTube. She was named one of the most influential streamers in Spain by Forbes magazine in 2021 and was the fourth most watched female streamer in the world in 2021. Where do you see the future of entertainment, on traditional television or on the internet? “We all do a similar thing, which is trying to entertain people. So why not join the paths? I have never seen it as a competition. I would like there to be a symbiosis between television and the world of internet entertainment, ”she replies.
