“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 in which, with the aesthetics and language of a video game, ten famous participants will try to beat the Master of Time, who is embodied by the presenter of eSports and streamer Cristinini.
“The philosophy of the program is without a doubt totally linked to video games and in this case the handicap that the contestants have to face is time management, as important as passing the tests”, advises 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 spread over immense abandoned facilities. When players are inside, time stops and restarts when they exit. Through games of mental and physical skill, players must overcome the eight levels of the program by completing numerous missions in inhospitable scenarios, such as sandstorms or smoke screens, as well as seeking rewards in the form of extra time or stealing minutes to his colleagues. In each level, the player with the least accumulated time on the timer will be eliminated and the one who reaches the final will have to face the Master of Time in a duel.
Cristinini, who this summer we will also see as a co-presenter of El Grand Prix on La 1, 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, that he has fun annoying and making life impossible for the contestants in complicity with the viewer, even though he’s not a bad person at heart”.
As the game begins, the contestants seem to prioritize competitiveness more than solidarity, although Cristinini disagrees. “In time management, for example, they can help save it by being supportive of each other. If they are individualistic, they all lose.” This was the mechanic that was wanted to be present in the program, although the presenter admits that “later, recording, we found the tessitura that were quite individualistic for better or for worse, but it was not planned that way”.
The presenter highlights from Time zone that “very different profiles of contestants have come together, who have nothing to do with each other, and who have taken the program as a great personal challenge, as if they were playing life; the batteries were put in from the first test of the first program”. These contestants include model Ángela Ponce, actor Antón Lofer, rap artist El Chojín, ex-boxer and businesswoman Joana Pastrana and talk show host Cristóbal Soria.
Under Cristinini is Cristina López Pérez (Tarragona, 1989). He has more than 3.3 million followers on Twitch (he 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 the fourth most viewed female streamer in the world during 2021. Where do you see the future of entertainment, on traditional television or on the internet? “We all do something similar, which is to try 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”, he replies.
