The production company of MrBeast, the world’s most popular YouTuber, is being sued along with Amazon by participants in his reality TV show “Beast Games” who claim they were exploited during filming.
The series, which has not yet been announced for release, is inspired by the YouTube videos that made MrBeast famous, in which he offers money to strangers if they complete daring or extreme challenges. The “Beast Games” have been billed as the “biggest reality competition ever.”
The show brought together no fewer than 1,000 participants competing for a $5 million jackpot. Five of them filed a complaint Monday in a Los Angeles court, denouncing “mistreatment.” According to these five anonymous candidates, they were not properly paid, did not always have meal breaks and worked in a toxic work environment, where sexual harassment was tolerated.
The Las Vegas shoot began to draw criticism before it even ended. Participants were surprised to learn that there were only more than 1,000 of them when they arrived, significantly reducing their chances of winning. The lawsuit claims that the “false advertising” violates California trade laws that prohibit lottery organizers from “misrepresenting in any manner the odds of winning a prize.”
Limited food and lack of medical staff
MrBeast’s company and Amazon, which produces the show, “shamelessly exploited the labor” of the contestants, according to the complaint, noting that the series’ budget was “$100 million.” The value of the show “is derived directly from the physical and emotional labor of the contestants who compete in difficult conditions,” the plaintiffs insist in the document. They also said that “limited food” and “lack of medical staff” on set put their health at risk.
This class action seeks to compensate all participants in the series by paying them a salary. This type of collective action rarely results in a trial in the United States and is generally settled amicably by financial agreements.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment, and a spokesman told The Associated Press in an email that he had no comment on the lawsuit. Amazon also declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
The American influencer has more than 316 million subscribers on YouTube, a record. In 2023, Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world. The same year, Forbes estimated his fortune at around half a billion dollars.
