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YouTube personality MrBeast, real name James Stephen Donaldson, has been named as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit connected to Beast Games, a reality competition show that he produced for Amazon Prime Video. The lawsuit alleges that the five unnamed contestants were subjected to “chronic mistreatment,” sexual harassment, no meal and/or bathroom breaks, and more.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, September 16, the Beast Games production allegedly “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 suit also alleges that participants were denied “medical care, food, sleep, and the necessities of basic hygiene.”
While the lawsuit names five unnamed contestants as its plaintiffs, the lawyers handling the case are seeking to obtain class-action status so any other affected Beast Games contestants can join.
Beast Games, an apparent spin on the popular dystopian South Korean Netflix series Squid Game — which sees participants compete in a competition that ends with them either dying or winning the grand prize — has a reported budget of $100 million, according to the complaint.
“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,” the representing attorneys 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.”
First announced earlier this year, Prime Video says Beast Games has a grand prize of $5 million, which they claim is the “biggest single prize in the history of television and streaming.” Prime Video that the series, which will feature 1000 contestants, will be “the world’s largest live gameshow.”
“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,” one of the unnamed defendants says.
“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.”
MrBeast is the most popular YouTuber in the world as his channel has over 316 million subscribers.