In March 2024, Amazon and YouTuber MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) announced a collaboration on competition series “Beast Games.” The show had more than 1,000 participants compete for a $5 million cash prize.
On September 16th, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles on behalf of five unnamed contestants for the show, alleging “chronic mistreatment,” sexual harassment, and more.
Allegations Against “Beast Games”
The lawsuit claims Amazon, MrBeast’s production company, Off One’s Base LLC, and others failed to pay minimum wages and overtime. The companies also allegedly failed to “prevent sexual harassment” and created conditions that subjected contestants to “infliction of emotional distress.” This along with not providing participants uninterrupted meal breaks or rest breaks, while exposing them to “dangerous circumstances and conditions as a condition of their employment.”
“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 “Beast Games” contestants said in a statement. “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.”
The “Beast Games” contestants say they were deprived of medical care, food, sleep, and necessities for basic hygiene. At this time, large portions of the filing are redacted, including details about the sexual harassment allegations.
“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 lawsuit states.
A Contestant’s Thoughts
“I wanted to join because I was a fan of MrBeast and his videos made me smile during the COVID-19 pandemic,” one of the plaintiffs only known as Contestant 5 said in a statement. “I expected to be challenged, but I didn’t think I would be treated like nothing — less than nothing. 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.”
“As extreme as the allegations against defendants are here, the law could not be more clear,” Robert Pafundi of Pafundi Law Firm, lead counsel for the plaintiffs said. “Participants entered into contracts and they were promised compensation for their services. Their expectation of compensation, along with them being consistently under the control and supervision of the production staff, makes them employees under California law. As such, they were entitled to, and denied, certain protections. 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.”
The contestants involved are asking Amazon and MrBeast’s company to settle alleged unpaid wages and expenses. As well as, pay unspecified punitive monetary damages.
A release date for “Beast Games” on Prime Video has yet to be announced.
