When David Brown moved from Chicago to Los Angeles this summer, one of the first things he did was download an app that aims to “fight big-city loneliness.”

The 35-year-old sales director had seen an Instagram ad for Timeleft, which matches users with strangers for dinner via a personality algorithm. Since he only knew a handful of people in his new city, he decided to give it a shot.

On the night of his first dinner, Brown, a self-described introvert, was “super nervous” as Timeleft provides participants with limited details about who they will be dining with, including their job industry and zodiac sign. No names or photos are disclosed. But Brown’s fears were quickly dispelled once the host led him to his assigned table and he met the other diners, who were just as anxious as he was.

“Everybody kind of committed to the experience and was just open minded,” says Brown, who lives in West Hollywood. Afterward, the group went to a bar hangout, also facilitated by Timeleft, for drinks and to meet other app users who also went to a dinner that night.

“I made at least two best friends at that first dinner,” says Brown, adding that one of them is now his roommate. Since then, he’s been going to Timeleft dinners almost every week and has started an Instagram group for users to stay in touch.

Brown is one of nearly 10,000 Angelenos who have attended a Timeleft dinner since the platform — which started in Lisbon last year and is now in more than 300 cities in 65 countries — expanded to L.A. in May. Los Angeles is the app’s second- largest market in the United States, behind New York City.

Every Wednesday (excluding some holidays), Timeleft hosts more than 400 dinners in L.A. neighborhoods — stretching from Santa Monica to North Hollywood — with the purpose of helping attendees meet new people and hopefully make a friend. In an effort to combat loneliness, particularly during the holiday season — a 2023 survey by ValuePenguin found that 61% of Americans expected to feel lonely or sad during the season — Timeleft is hosting dinners on Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, both of which fall on a Wednesday. Among the participating restaurants, which are open to the public on the holidays, are Butcher’s Daughter, Zinque and Formosa Cafe.

Carlie Armstrong, who leads Timeleft’s West Coast region, says the company wanted to offer an alternative option during the holidays for people who may have lost loved ones, who live far from their families or those who may not have a good relationship with them.

“This is also a particularly polarizing year so there are a lot of people who maybe are shying away from those interactions and maybe want to try something new during this time, but still be with other people,” she says. A recent American Psychological Association survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults found that nearly 40% participants said they are avoiding relatives they disagree with politically during the holiday season.

Jonathan Alexander listens to Cristina Haraba talk during a recent Timeleft dinner with strangers at Bacari in West Hollywood.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Each of the holiday dinners will follow the format a typical Timeleft gathering. To join, you can purchase a ticket for $16 or sign up for a membership starting at $26 per month, then you will be prompted to select your preferred dinner date. Users can also indicate their budget for dinner as the app works with various types of restaurants (casual, fine dining, etc.). On the Tuesday before the event, you’ll receive a brief introduction about your fellow diners. Guests are responsible for paying for their own meals.

Before your Timeleft dinner, you’ll learn a few details about your fellow diners in the app.

I attended my first Timeleft dinner last month at Bacari in West Hollywood. Upon arrival, I showed the hostess my table number, which was provided by the app, and two other folks who were there for the dinner introduced themselves to me. A staffer then guided us to our table and eventually four other diners — one of whom was celebrating his birthday — trickled in to join us. Everyone in my group had attended at least five dinners with the platform, so they were past the awkwardness that you’d think would come from meeting with a group of strangers for the first time.

Conversation flowed effortlessly at our table, so much so that we didn’t even pull out the question game that Timeleft provides to help break the ice. As we threw back strong cocktails and nibbled on delicious shareable plates, we talked about our jobs, hobbies, hometowns and upbringings (one woman had moved to L.A. from Romania). At one point, I told the group that someone I used to date, but hadn’t seen in a year, had walked into the room, which launched a venting session about dating woes in L.A. We were comfortable, to say the least, and anyone walking by would’ve thought we’d known each other much longer than two hours.

The restaurant would only take a limited number of credit cards although staff encouraged us to share plates, so we had a minor headache trying to figure out how to split the bill. Ultimately, one person put their card down and we sent them money.

Maxime Barbier, who lives in Paris, founded Timeleft in 2023 because he wanted to help people combat loneliness in big cities.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

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Cristina Haraba, 42, who moved to L.A. from London three years ago, is considering attending one of the app’s holiday dinners because she doesn’t have any family in town. Like Brown, she came across an ad for Timeleft on Instagram and decided to go because she was struggling to make friends.

“It’s difficult to meet people in L.A. and I know it’s not just me because a lot of the people who’ve come to these dinners have been living in L.A. for 20 years. Some of them were born here,” says Haraba, who said she is used to having a “very rich social life.”

Haraba, who’s originally from Romania, has been to about six Timeleft dinners so far and has made a few friends she still keeps in touch with. What keeps her coming back is the opportunity to try new restaurants in her area and meet interesting people who she can explore the city with, she says.

Timeleft founder Maxime Barbier, who lives in Paris, says it was important for him to target the app to folks of various ages, including people like his 71-year-old dad. Barbier encouraged his dad to attend a dinner after he suffered a serious brain accident that caused him to be less social. He now goes at least once a month, Barber says.

“Something I find sad is that all the new concepts are really focused on the new generation like ‘This is only for Gen Z,’” Barbier says. “But people who are the same age as my parents know how to use a computer or an iPhone and I think they need help because they [can get] lonely.” At most Timeleft dinners, people are paired with people who are within 10 years of their age, but some folks have been matched with folks of other generations as well.

Myra Hermosa, 37, grew up in the San Fernando Valley, but recently moved back to the area after living in San Diego and North Carolina for a few years.

“What sold it for me was that you have five people at that dinner table who you never would’ve met had you just gone through your day to day life,” says Myra Hermosa, 37.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

“When I got back here, I was like “Welp, most of my friends are gone, or at least not in the area,” says Hermosa, who works from home. She decided to attend her first Timeleft dinner this summer because she was “itching to get out, make friends and be social again,” she says.

“What sold it for me was that you have five people at that dinner table who you never would’ve met had you just gone through your day to day life. And they were just sharing their stories, their background, where they come from and what they do for a living,” Hermosa says, adding that she met an actress and an army veteran. They played Timeleft’s game in the app, which included reflective questions like “Why did you move to L.A.?” and “What is an event that had a significant impact on your life?” “I figured how crazy is it that these five people are sitting at a table and actually talking and interacting? This is kind of cool.”

For those who are thinking about attending one of Timeleft’s holiday dinners or on another Wednesday night, former attendees say it’s essential to remain open, be yourself and to follow up if you vibe with someone.

“Don’t be afraid to be honest,” says Brown, adding that the dinners have helped him gain confidence. “If you can’t be vulnerable, it’s going to be really hard for people to relate to you in your experience. We’re all at this dinner table for a reason. Most of us are here to make more friends, not just to sit at dinner with a stranger for two and a half hours.”

Sports fans who tuned into Netflix’s landmark streaming Wednesday of two NFL games may have felt a bit of troubling déjà vu – at first.

That’s because this crucial event – signaling the entry of the industry’s largest streaming service into the blockbuster business of professional football – kicked off with audio problems in the early moments of host Kay Adams’ opening presentation.

It was a worrying callback to problems Netflix had with its last big live event, the boxing match in November between YouTube star Jake Paul and former champ Mike Tyson when viewers struggled with blurry audio and got regularly kicked off the live stream.

Fortunately, Adams’ sound problems were quickly fixed, allowing Netflix to step up with a two-game programming event that felt like the streaming service’s version of the Super Bowl – complete with a lushly-produced halftime show for its second game featuring pop superstar Beyoncé that could stand up to any Big Game presentation.

In fact, the actual football games may have been the least impressive part of Netflix’s big day, as Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs ran over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game, 29-10 and the Baltimore Ravens dominated the Houston Texans on their home turf for the second contest, 31-2.

Netflix’s broadcast on Wednesday got off to a rocky start with audio problems from host Kay Adams.

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Stacking its teams of hosts and commentators with experienced broadcasters, Netflix delivered a mostly smooth visual presentation with lots of glitzy graphics and all the information fans needed to follow the game. The connection issues that plagued the Tyson/Paul fight seemed largely absent, at least for this viewer, particularly while watching the games in slightly delayed playback.

According to Netflix, more than 200 countries tuned in at some point during the Chiefs vs. Steelers contest, making it the second most popular live title on the streaming service.

So, it makes sense the streamer would take advantage of the occasion to shoehorn in lots of references to other Netflix products, including a pregame interview with WWE wrestler Liv Morgan to prompt the debut of WWE Raw live events next month and realistic-looking football-shaped cakes tying into the streamer’s game show Is It Cake?

There were also loads of commercials, which seemed to play even for subscribers with ad-free plans, though if you watched the games via replay, you could skip past them.

But the full games expired from Netflix three hours after the event; two programs offering highlights from each game’s plays are available to watch on demand, and the streamer says Beyoncé’s halftime show will also be offered as a standalone program to rewatch.

Queen Bey, a Houston native, certainly brought the fire to her hometown for what the streamer dubbed the “Beyoncé Bowl” halftime show. Performing songs from her album Cowboy Carter for the first time – including her reboots of “Jolene” and “Blackbird” – she was a vision in white and sequins backed by a cavalcade of dancers decked out in white cowboy hats and ace collaborators like Post Malone and Shaboozey. Her daughter, Blue Ivy, even made an appearance.

Beyoncé’s epic live performance lasted more than 13 minutes – handily overshadowing Mariah Carey’s pre-taped appearances before each game – also proving that Netflix could muster the production value and imagery to match any Super Bowl-level performer.

Which was, ultimately, the most important point of the entire day – proving that the streaming service is ready to compete with the big dogs of broadcasting by offering glitch-free NFL games live to a subscriber base of more than 282 million accounts.

Netflix isn’t the only streamer offering live NFL games. Amazon’s Prime Video has Thursday Night Football and Peacock also offers live coverage of some NFL games. But Netflix, as the largest and most profitable streaming service, has a symbolic and substantial impact when it comes to a certain kind of programming.

With its plans to stream WWE Raw live events starting next month and a new deal to present the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Netflix is turning toward one area of television streaming services haven’t yet dominated: live sports.

What that ultimately means for the future of television – and the future of sports media – we may just be starting to learn.