YouTuber Mrbeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, and Amazon were involved in a complaint in which the participants in their 5-million-dollar price Beast Games were exploited.
The participants said they were exposed to unfair treatment and sexual harassment, while they started the world’s largest live game show. According to Variety, Beast Games is a reality competition produced by Amazon Prime Video. The series, which was first announced in March, gave 1,000 participants the opportunity to win a cash price of 5 million US dollars (£ 3.5 million).
According to papers, which were submitted in a court in Los Angeles on Monday, the participants were not properly received, were not properly made available, had no food breaks or reasonable rest periods, were exposed to dangerous conditions, and confronted sexual harassment.
The plaintiffs were identified only as participants one through five in the case filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against Amazon Alternative LLC and MrBeast’s production company, MRB2024 LLC.
Variety said the complaint sought class-action status on behalf of all affected Beast Games participants. The lawsuit asked Amazon and MrBeast’s company to reimburse them for alleged underpaid wages and costs, as well as unspecified damages.
They allege that the production team monitored them, dictated when they slept and what they wore, and denied them privacy and access to the outside world.
They were “undernourished and tired,” it alleges, and meals were served “sparingly and sporadically,” endangering the contestants’ “health and well-being.”
The 54-page document also details allegations of an unsafe environment, including confining contestants to confined spaces, dangerous sets, and inadequate background checks that allowed convicted felons to participate.
Some, it alleges, were physically injured and did not receive adequate medical care.
The set also allegedly “fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism,” resulting in a “hostile environment” for women, including sexual harassment.
“This was not only noted but allowed,” the document states. “And apparently allowed because of orders from above.”
The contestants’ attorneys argue that they should be compensated for their time, which they describe as “essential labor” to the production, and that they “did not work for free” and should have been classified as employees.
All of the plaintiffs are seeking thousands of dollars to reimburse the “unpaid wages” of all those who participated.
Two of the named plaintiffs, both women, are seeking additional damages over allegations of workplace harassment.
“Defendant’s production companies and Amazon have blatantly abused the labor of individuals who participated in the upcoming $100 million MrBeast-Amazon production ‘Beast Games,’ which Amazon is promoting as the world’s largest live-action game show with the largest single prize in television history,” according to the complaint.
The entertainment value of the show “comes directly from the physical and emotional labor of the contestants as they compete under pressure for a life-changing cash prize, with one person ultimately winning $5 million,” according to the complaint.
According to the publication, “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 ended 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 contestants were denied medical attention, food, sleep, and “the necessities of basic hygiene,” while the producers “created working conditions that jeopardized worker safety.”Variety reports that portions of the case were suppressed, including details about the sexual harassment charges.
“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 complaint states.
One of the female plaintiffs in the complaint, known only as Contestant Five, said in a statement: “I decided to join because I was a fan of MrBeast and his films made me smile during the COVID-19 pandemic. I expected to be challenged, but I didn’t expect to be treated like I was nothing, less than nothing. And as one of the women, I can say that it seemed downright hostile toward us. We honestly couldn’t have been treated less, as people, let alone employees, if they had tried.”
MrBeast did not immediately respond to an AFP inquiry. Amazon declined to respond.The release date for the game show competition has not been revealed. However, Amazon described it as the world’s largest live gameshow with the biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming.
MrBeast is one of the most successful YouTubers of all time, with over 300 million subscribers, the most of any one creator. His work involves contests and challenges, with often substantial awards for participants.
In addition to his considerable online presence, he created other charity enterprises.
In 2023, TIME magazine named him one of the world’s most important individuals. That same year, Forbes estimated his net worth at $54 million.
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