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MrBeast and Amazon sued by ‘Beast Games’ contestants for alleged abuses

Controversy continues to hound MrBeast after the content creator is named in a class-action lawsuit filed by the contestants of the upcoming reality competition show, Beast Games.

According to media reports, five anonymous participants of the show filed the lawsuit against MrBeast, his production company, and Amazon Studios, alleging that the contestants were subjected to “unreasonable, unsafe” working conditions and that they were “shamelessly exploited” during the production of the show.

As announced in March of this year, Beast Games was billed as “the biggest reality competition” of all time. The Amazon Prime Video show’s formula is based on the content creator’s regular YouTube series that features 1,000 participants competing for a single $5 million cash prize.

But in the redacted copy of the complaint obtained by Variety, participants alleged they weren’t paid minimum wages and overtime and demanded to be compensated for other monetary expenses.

“Mr. [Jimmy] Donaldson, who has publicly represented that all MrBeast® contestants get paid if they compete for just five minutes, gushed to his fans online about the bigger-than-ever scale of the Amazon-sponsored Beast Games, stating that money was ‘not a constraint,’” it read. “Unfortunately, the supposedly magnanimous MrBeast® did not want to use the alleged unconstrained resources to provide fair wages, or even bare-minimum-legal working conditions, to the Contestants whose labor comprised the core commercial value of Beast Games.”

Additionally, the contestants also detailed in the 54-page document that MrBeast and Amazon have made “multiple false statements to the contestants.”

A case in point: the number of contestants was apparently different from what was first announced. Instead, the number of contestants had increased to 2,000, and the first thousand competitors to be eliminated would be used for MrBeast’s content on his YouTube channel.

The lawsuit also alleged that multiple participants of the show ended up being hospitalized due to deprivation of medical care, food, sleep, and other basic hygiene necessities. Others, on the other hand, have been reported to experience mental and emotional distress, as well as physical injuries as they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment” and degradation.

Further, female contestants were also exposed to a “toxic and hostile work environment,” with most of them having experienced sexual harassment.

According to the lawsuit, a “fostered culture of misogyny and sexism” was also rampant during the show’s production through an employee handbook titled, “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production.”

The alleged employee handbook, which was first exposed by YouTuber Rosanna Pansino in August, provided insights that promote the “boys-will-be-boys working conditions.”

It also advises the production staff to “really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content” and “help them be idiots.”

“If talent wants to draw a dick on the whiteboard in the video or do something stupid, let them,” it read.

In a statement by one of the female contestants, identified as Contestant 5, who filed the lawsuit, she expressed how she didn’t expect to be exposed in such a hostile environment and that they would be disrespected.

“I wanted to join because I was a fan of MrBeast, and his videos made me smile during the COVID-19 pandemic. I expected to be challenged, but I didn’t think I would be treated like nothing—less than nothing. And as one of the women, I can say it absolutely felt like a hostile environment for us. We honestly could not have been respected less—as people, much less employees—if they tried,” said Contestant 5.

News of the class-action lawsuit against the famous YouTuber has caught the attention of the people on the internet, and they were quick to weigh in on the issue.

As of this writing, MrBeast and Amazon Studios have yet to release a statement.

This isn’t the first time that Beast Games contestants have spoken up about the “unsafe working conditions” they were exposed to during the filming of the reality show.

In August, two eliminated participants told TIME how challenging it was for them to “get adequate sleep, food, water, and medication,” and that the production staff was “disorganized.”

While the production of Beast Games started in mid-July of this year, a release date for the reality show competition has yet to be announced. Beast Games is set to be available exclusively on Prime Video worldwide.

 

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