MrBeast, Amazon hit with lawsuit over competition series Beast Games
MrBeast is the most-subscribed channel on YouTube
A group of contestants who participated in Beast Games, the mega-budget Amazon reality competition series that marked MrBeast’s first foray into unscripted television, have filed a class-action lawsuit against the YouTube star and the tech giant.
The contestants allege they were the subject of sexual harassment, emotional distress and a range of other unsafe on-set conditions.
The legal filing, lodged this week in Los Angeles Superior Court by a group of five unnamed contestants, alleges that the production failed to provide “a safe and healthful place of employment, to the particular and collective detriment of the female contestants, who suffered sexual harassment.”
Broadly, it claims the production created a “toxic and hostile environment” that gave rise to sexual harassment, in addition to jeopardising contestants’ safety with insufficient food and drink, lack of adequate medical care and games that “unreasonably risked physical and mental injury.”
The suit also alleges that senior management on the production were aware of but “failed to remedy the violence and sexual harassment,” and that the production paid less than the minimum wage.
MrBeast and Amazon were inaccurate in their description of the show’s production cycle, the suit also claimed. When Amazon first announced the show, it said it would include 1,000 contestants vying for a US$5m prize – the largest ever for a scripted series, eclipsing Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge.
However, according to the suit, when contestants arrived at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for filming, they were informed the production would involve more than 2,000 contestants, with that then being whittled down to 1,000 for the main show.
According to the suit, which is seeking class-action status, this amounted to false advertising, as it significantly cut the odds of winning the grand prize.
Defendants named in the suit are MrBeast’s MRB2024, production company Off One’s Base and Amazon. The production itself is estimated to cost around US$100m, likely making it the most expensive reality TV series ever.
All of the allegations detailed in the lawsuit pertain to the Las Vegas portion of the shoot, which took place in July and became the subject of scrutiny after an investigative report from The New York Times.
For the second, main round of production, filming relocated to Toronto, where the show was service produced by Blink49 Studios.
MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has more subscribers to his YouTube account than any other, with around 316 million. His videos have racked up more than 58 billion views since he began posting in 2012.
