Beast Games: The scandals dogging the Youtube star’s record-breaking game show

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery MrBeast The suit alleges that Amazon and MrBeast’s production company have failed to pay minimum wages and overtime; failed to prevent sexual harassment; subjected contestants to “infliction of emotional distress”; did not provide meal breaks, rest breaks or access to basic hygiene and that contestants were exposed to “dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment”. The suit alleges that Amazon and MrBeast’s production company have failed to pay minimum wages and overtime; failed to prevent sexual harassment; subjected contestants to “infliction of emotional distress”; did not provide meal breaks, rest breaks or access to basic hygiene and that contestants were exposed to “dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment”. In a statement, attorneys for the anonymous contestants said: “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.” They added: “Several contestants ended up hospitalised, while others reported suffering physical and mental complications while being subjected to chronic mistreatment, degradation and, for the female contestants, hostile working conditions.” open image in gallery MrBeast on Beast Games A separate plaintiff, identified only as “Contestant 5”, said that she only joined Beast Games because she was a fan of MrBeast’s YouTube videos and that they made her “smile during the Covid-19 pandemic” but felt that she was treated like “less than nothing” while on the show. 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.” MrBeast responds In a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter in August, a spokesperson for the YouTuber said: “The MrBeast promotional video shoot, which included over 2,000 participants, was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues, which we are currently reviewing, but we are grateful that virtually all of those invited to Toronto for our next production have enthusiastically accepted our invitation.” “We have communicated directly with 97 per cent of the 2,000 people who attended to ask for feedback, have launched a formal review of the process, and have taken steps to ensure that we learn from this experience and we are excited to welcome hundreds of men and women to the world’s largest game show in history.” Donaldson has not formally commented on the allegations but, on 25 November, he responded to a post on X/Twitter writing: “We have tons of behind-the-scenes dropping when the show does, to show how blown out of proportion these claims were.