A lawsuit against YouTube star MrBeast and Amazon has been filed on behalf of five unnamed contestants in the “Beast Games” reality competition show alleging they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment,” sexual harassment and more.
The complaint was filed Monday (Sept. 16) in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges multiple causes of action related to the chronic mistreatment of and neglect suffered by participants in “Beast Games,” a reality competition ordered by Prime Video in which more than 1,000 participants compete for a single $5 million cash prize. The suit claims “Beast Games” has a $100 million budget. A redacted copy of the complaint is available at this link.
Related Stories
The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of all affected “Beast Games” contestants. The suit demands that Amazon and MrBeast’s company pay alleged unpaid wages and expenses and that the defendants be ordered to pay unspecified punitive monetary damages.
Popular on Variety
Reached by Variety, representatives for Amazon and MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson) declined to comment.
According to the lawsuit, Amazon, MrBeast’s MRB2024 production company and independent production firm Off One’s Base LLC — among other things — failed to pay minimum wages and overtime; failed to prevent sexual harassment; created conditions that subjected contestants to “infliction of emotional distress”; did not provide participants uninterrupted meal breaks or rest breaks; and exposed contestants to “dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment.” The first round of the show, with more than 2,000, was shot July 18-22 at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. The 1,000 participants who made it through the Las Vegas competition moved on to the next round, shot in Toronto in August.
“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 anonymous “Beast Games” contestants said in a statement about the lawsuit. “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.”
According to the lawsuit, “Beast Games” participants were deprived of medical care, food, sleep and “the necessities of basic hygiene.” Portions of the lawsuit are redacted, including some of the details involving the sexual harassment allegations. “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 states.
The lawsuit seeks to “establish a pattern of sexual harassment,” according to the attorneys representing the five plaintiffs. For example, the complaint cites instructions from an alleged “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production” employee handbook that includes this: “If talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them… Really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content. Help them be idiots.”
One of the female plaintiffs in the complaint, identified only as “Contestant 5,” said in a statement: “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.”
According to the lawsuit, “Beast Games” producers “created working conditions that jeopardized the safety of workers,” including by not providing sufficient food or drink,” not providing “adequate medical staff on site” and not providing reasonable medical care, forcing them not to sleep, and “forcing them to participate in games that unreasonably risked physical and mental injury.”
“As extreme as the allegations against defendants are here, the law could not be more clear,” said Robert Pafundi of Pafundi Law Firm, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “Participants entered into contracts and they were promised compensation for their services. Their expectation of compensation, along with them being consistently under the control and supervision of the production staff, makes them employees under California law. As such, they were entitled to, and denied, certain protections. And when you add to that the extreme neglect, degradation, harassment and inhumane conditions — it’s quite simply a massive dereliction of duty, for which the defendants must and will now be held accountable.”
A release date for “Beast Games” on Prime Video has not yet been announced. Amazon has touted it as “the world’s largest live gameshow” with the “biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming.”
Donaldson, 26, is the biggest YouTuber in the world: He currently has 316 million subscribers to his main YouTube channel, the most of any individual creator. MrBeast has garnered a massive fanbase through his videos featuring outrageous stunts and big-money giveaways. His most-viewed video on YouTube to date is his 2021 reenactment of “Squid Game,” which replicated elimination challenges from the hit Netflix show and awarded the winner $456,000.
