A class action lawsuit has been filed against YouTube star MrBeast and Amazon by five former contestants on the unreleased reality competition show, “Beast Games.”
The plaintiffs allege general mistreatment, sexual harassment, and other violations, court documents show. A redacted version of the lawsuit became available after it was filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, per Variety.
“Beast Games” had a $100 million production budget, the suit states. Creator MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, discussed the game show in March, saying it includes “over 1,000 contestants, $5,000,000 prize, and many other world records,” making it the “largest game show in history.” It is scheduled to be released on Prime Video.
The lawsuit alleges that Amazon and MrBeast’s production company (Off One’s Base LLC) committed several offenses, including failing to pay minimum wages and overtime, failing to prevent sexual harassment, and creating conditions that led to “infliction of emotional distress.” The plaintiffs said they were not provided uninterrupted meal breaks or rest breaks and were exposed to “dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment.”
They also claimed to be subjected to a “culture of misogyny and sexism.”
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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 plaintiffs said in the 54-page document. “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.”
Most of the specifics of the sexual harassment claims were redacted from the document. But one section discusses “a pattern of sexual harassment.”
For example, plaintiffs claim that in the “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production” employee handbook, it says, “If talent wants to draw a d*** 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.”
The New York Times ran an article last month detailing allegations from former contestants about the conditions on the game show. They said several participants fainted, vomited, or were hospitalized during the competition. A spokesperson for Donaldson acknowledged the issues, telling the outlet at the time that filming was “unfortunately complicated” by the global CrowdStrike disruption in July, extreme weather, and “other unexpected logistical and communications issues.”
