Of all the presentations of television programs and series that have passed through the Vitoria FesTVal this year, the return of Un, dos, tres… has been the one that has garnered the greatest expectation, although not so much because of the mythical brand created by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador on TVE but for the one who will be in charge of hosting it: TheGrefg, a streamer who will make the program his own from his Twitch channel.
Hundreds of fans thronged the Basque city on Thursday afternoon, some having been there since the morning, to be able to see their idol. The hall of the Europa Conference Center has a capacity for 700 people and there was not a single free space. They were, for the most part, children from the age of five to adolescence, the audience for their live performances.
Who is TheGrefg? We ask him himself, as ambassadors of so many who will know the One, two, three… but not his new face. «People have known me by making videos in which I shared my life, my adventures, my video games, but above all, I am a kid who is very excited about everything. When you take that to any area, be it commenting on a video game or making a program, people tend to get hooked,” he responds.
His appearance on the carpet is reminiscent of fan phenomena from other generations such as Take That or the Spice Girls: there are nerves, a lot of shouting and the desire to touch the idol, take a photo and say something to him. Some children bring him a gift (a paper bag with an Alava scarf, a wallet, a keychain…), another raises a banner that reads: “TheGrefg, give us a cool photo.” They share their own code.
Although the event is running late, he stands with practically everyone who has come to the doors of the event to see him, like a modern Tom Cruise on a red carpet. «It impacts a lot. I didn’t expect there to be so many people,” he says excitedly, “in the last live show the guys from here told me that they were going to come, that no one ever comes to Vitoria, and I promised them that I would try to take a photo with everyone. But there are many more people than he expected.
“I wasn’t even born when the boom of One, Two, Three… [is from 1997], so I have had to soak up what it has meant historically and I have understood the magnitude of what they were proposing to me,” comments TheGrefg about the program, “I have seen little things to nourish me and be in the mood and I have understood what a privilege it is to be offered to be the presenter of this. The young audience that follows me has to understand that one of the most legendary contests, if not the most, is going to return in a different and adapted format. It is a good opportunity for older and younger audiences to get together, the whole family. “It’s going to be very nice.”
“The intention is that, to unite families,” says Alejandro Ibáñez, Chicho’s son, who is behind the production. «Sitting together and the next day being able to have conversations about what we have seen. It is returning to the essence of before. My dad was always ahead of everyone, and Twitch is the way to stay ahead in entertainment now. These guys, like TheGrefg or Ibai, have been entertaining young people for many years, so we saw that it was the right way to return. The format will adapt to its new medium and time and will be live for the first time, with a four-hour broadcast. “It’s going to be more hooligan because of the audience it is, it’s going to have a brutal pace, but the structure will be the same as always: questions and answers, physical tests and the big auction with performances,” clarifies Ibáñez.
Supporting TheGrefg there will be collaborators for all tastes, from content creators like Abril Cols and Nadia Vilaplana to Jandro (known for his time at El Hormiguero), to the legendary Hurtado sisters, Teresa and Fernanda, who return at 76 years old. “Now it’s for young people, which is the bomb!” they say. Their new location is no stranger to them, although they admit that they did not know anything about the boy who will be their new presenter. Now that they do know him, they say about him: «When you are a star, not even you yourself know what the secret of your success is. But he is a star.”