Mr. Beast. Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
YouTuber MrBeast and Amazon are facing a lawsuit from five former contestants on the creator’s upcoming Beast Games series.
The unnamed contestants allege in a complaint filed on Monday, September 16, that while filming the show, they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment,” sexual harassment, failure to provide uninterrupted meals and rest breaks, and false advertising.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, and Prime Video announced in March that the streaming service had ordered Beast Games, a reality competition series featuring 1,000 contestants vying for a record $5 million grand prize. The series soon came under fire, however, when several contestants were hospitalized and more than a dozen others claimed to have suffered injuries during production.
The lawsuit is seeking class-action status on behalf of the 1,000 players. It calls on MrBeast and Amazon to pay alleged unpaid wages and expenses owed to the contestants, as well as unspecified punitive monetary damages.
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“While participants knew upon signing the contract at the production’s inception that they were facing a potentially long and challenging competition, they allege getting a lot more than they bargained for,” attorneys for the five anonymous contestants said in a statement. “Several contestants ending up hospitalized, while others reported suffering physical and mental complications while being subjected to chronic mistreatment, degradation and, for the female contestants, hostile working conditions.”
The suit elaborated on the treatment of female contestants, saying the Beast Games atmosphere “fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism where Production Staff did nothing.” It even cited the “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production” employee handbook, which encourages production to “empower the boys when filming and help them make content. Help them be idiots.”
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One of the female players, identified as Contestant 5, elaborated.
“I wanted to join because I was a fan of MrBeast and his videos made me smile during the COVID-19 pandemic,” they said. “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.”
The suit also stated that contestants were denied medical care, food, sleep and “the necessities of basic hygiene.”
“The Plaintiffs have filed this action using pseudonyms and applying conservative redactions that limit public viewing in a good faith effort to comply with Defendants’ overbroad confidentiality provisions (which Plaintiffs allege are unenforceable), as well as to preserve the confidentiality and privacy interests of the Plaintiffs who wish to avoid opprobrium,” the lawsuit stated.
