At least five game show contestants were “shamelessly exploited” and subjected to “unreasonable, unsafe” working conditions on Amazon Prime’s “Beast Games,” a California civil action said this week.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court class action lawsuit, filed on Monday, names Amazon and a production company linked to YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson, best known for his digital persona “MrBeast,” as defendants.
“Beast Games” has been billed as a reality competition program with $5 million in prize money, according to Amazon which acquired streaming rights to the show.
“Defendant production companies and Amazon shamelessly exploited the labor of approximately (redacted) people who served as contestants,” according to lawyers representing the plaintiffs.
“Beast Games” reportedly began casting and filming this past summer with contestants performing various physical tasks akin to challenges staged on Donaldson’s YouTube channel.
The five plaintiffs were not named. Four live in California and two of them reside in Los Angeles County, the suit said.
The 50-page complaint also redacted details of how plaintiffs allegedly suffered and broadly suggested that work conditions were unsuitable.
Contestants were “penned into enclosed spaces” and “under conditions where they were underfed, overtired” and “competing in stressful and exhausting challenge for a cash prize that could change their lives,” according to the complaint.
There was also “insufficient medical staff to attend to potential and actual injuries during” production, lawyers for the contestants said.
The defendants “failed to provide a safe and healthful place to work” and “jeopardized the safety of workers” by “not providing sufficient food or drink” and “forcing them not to sleep and forcing them to participate in games that unreasonably risked physical and mental injury,” the plaintiffs said.
Sexism and misogyny not only ran rampant on the set but was encouraged, according to the lawsuit.
“The female contestants particularly and collectively suffered as a result of defendants’ actions,” the complaint said. “The Beast Game work environment systematically fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism.”
The production crew allegedly worked off a “MrBeast Handbook,” which allegedly encouraged poor behavior.
“If talent wants to draw a d— on a white board in the video or do something stupid, let them,” according to the complaint. “Really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content. Help them be idiots.”
The show is reportedly still filming in Canada and Panama and an air date had not yet been set by Amazon.
A rep for Donaldson declined comment. An Amazon official could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.
Amanda Sidman, Alexandra Detwiler and Chloe Melas contributed.