A scathing New York Times investigation into a reality series produced by YouTube star MrBeast with Amazon MGM studios paints an extremely negative picture of what contestants experienced.
The show, called Beast Games, brought thousands of people to Las Vegas to participate in various stunts, all for a shot at a grand prize of $5 million. Shooting for the competition started in July, with 2,000 contestants gathered in Nevada at Allegiant Stadium for several days. Competitors ate, slept, and lived inside the stadium.
The Times story is the latest blow against MrBeast’s empire, which has been under fire from a co-host’s alleged grooming of a minor and comments MrBeast himself made in his younger days on a podcast.
While fans of MrBeast’s YouTube contests likely expected strange and risky challenges, the Lord of the Flies atmosphere they encountered went beyond the usual.
Several contestants told The Times that they had been asked whether they would be willing to be buried alive or travel to outer space. Contestants had to sign nondisclosure agreements.
Casino.org’s Virtual Vegas column reported a long list of contestant abuses by participants.
Speaking with The New York Times, more than a dozen people who participated in the first installment of Beast Games said that they had not received adequate food or medical care, and said some competitors had suffered injuries from the physical challenges.
The Times said it received a text message from a spokesperson for MrBeast. The text said the shoot “was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communications issues.” The spokesperson said MrBeast had started a formal review and had “taken steps to ensure that we learn from this experience.”
“We signed up for the show, but we didn’t sign up for not being fed or watered or treated like human beings,” one contestant told The Times.
Another participant confirmed to Deadline that the entire production “was an utter s*** show, with many contestants going without their medication or proper meals for days, as well as being forced to sleep outside due to the run of the shooting days and extremely poor organization by production.” The person asked for anonymity because of signing an NDA.
The 1,000 participants who made it through all four challenges in the stadium without being eliminated are now preparing for the next stage of the competition, which is set to be filmed in Canada in early August.
“We are grateful that virtually all of those invited to Toronto for our next production have enthusiastically accepted our invitation,” the MrBeast spokesperson wrote to the Times.
Deadline has reached out to Amazon for comment.
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