Jimmy Donaldson is the internet’s fairy godmother.
Better known online as MrBeast, Mr. Donaldson, 26, has made a name for himself as a benevolent YouTube star who has racked up hundreds of millions of subscribers for his provocative brand of philanthropy, like the time he paid for 1,000 people to receive cataract surgery. The resulting eight-minute video was hyperbolically titled “1,000 Blind People See for the First Time.”
Extravagant prizes have become his calling card. He’s given away homes, cars, a private island and lots and lots of cash. Usually it comes with a dark twist: Once, he offered a man $10,000 a day for each day he was willing to live in a grocery story without leaving. In his most popular video, “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!,” 456 people competed in a game show inspired by the dystopian Netflix drama “Squid Game.” (In the Netflix show, down-and-out contestants play deadly versions of children’s games to win $38 million.)
When in March Mr. Donaldson and Amazon MGM studios announced “Beast Games,” a reality competition show in the mold of MrBeast’s popular videos, thousands of people jumped at the chance, posting on Reddit threads about the application process and waiting hopefully to be accepted.
The prize: $5 million.
Familiar with MrBeast’s content and with the lengths to which those who appear in his videos must go in order to win, many expected outlandish and even potentially risky challenges.
During an intake process this year, several contestants told The New York Times that they had been asked whether they would be willing to be buried alive or travel to outer space. One contestant recalled being asked if she would be able to swim to shore if thrown overboard from a boat. “I understand that such activities may cause me death, illness, or serious bodily injury, including, but not limited to exhaustion, dehydration, overexertion, burns, and heat stroke,” read a line in a contract, reviewed by The Times, that applicants were required to sign. (Such language is commonplace in reality television contracts.)
What they did not expect, however, were the more mundane yet potentially dangerous inconveniences that they said had befallen them during the competition.
Speaking with The New York Times on the condition of anonymity due to nondisclosure agreements, over a dozen people who participated in the first installment of “Beast Games” said that they had not received adequate food or medical care and that some competitors had suffered injuries from the physical challenges. (The event was being filmed for Mr. Donaldson’s YouTube channel to select contestants to participate in the Amazon MGM show later this summer.)
Some contestants left the competition arena on stretchers, a contestant said, though it was unclear if any of those contestants had faced serious medical conditions. Another described watching fellow contestants vomiting and appearing to pass out. There were several hospitalizations.
In a text message, a spokesperson for MrBeast 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.”
Representatives for Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment.
Mr. Donaldson’s content has always relied on the willingness of others — often strangers — to go to extremes to create highly watchable videos. During his meteoric rise to mega-virality, some former employees have spoken out about safety concerns on MrBeast sets, but his vast fan base has continued to see him as fundamentally charitable and well meaning. Now, amid allegations about “Beast Games” as well as recent accusations about inappropriate language used by Mr. Donaldson and a former collaborator, his reputation, as well as his multimillion-dollar YouTube empire, are on the line.
“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.
The Games Begin
Mr. Donaldson and the executives at Amazon MGM Studios had ambitions for “Beast Games” typical of MrBeast’s penchant for superlatives. In a news release this year, the studio said the show’s $5 million prize would be the biggest prize in streaming and television history.
“We were blown away by his ambition to make ‘Beast Games’ the biggest reality competition series ever,” Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, said of Mr. Donaldson, who is the host and executive producer of the show.
Shooting for the competition started in July, with 2,000 contestants gathered in Nevada at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, for several days. Competitors ate, slept and lived inside the stadium while competing in challenges like moving heavy objects and an extreme game of capture the flag. Some stayed up to three nights.
Before they arrived at the stadium on July 18, the contestants had to turn in their phones and belongings, including medications. The group ranged in age from members of Gen Z to a competitor who said he was 82, a contestant said.
Right from the start, things seemed off. Some contestants said they had originally been told that the competition would have 1,000 participants. (This was also the figure advertised by Prime Video earlier this year.) But upon arrival, contestants received a video message from Ms. Donaldson, reviewed by The Times, informing them that the number of contestants was higher.
“Obviously, there’s 2,000 contestants,” Mr. Donaldson said in the video. “I don’t remember if I said that publicly or not, but there is.” A spokesperson for MrBeast said the intention had always been to have 2,000 competitors during that phase to winnow down to the 1,000 for the Amazon MGM show.
Like many of the people who appear in MrBeast’s YouTube videos, some of the contestants said they needed the cash to pay for things like student loans and medical debt. After learning they would be competing against twice as many people, some said they felt they had been misled about their odds of winning.
Several contestants also said they had not been warned about how little they would be given to eat and how infrequently. They described going long stretches without being fed by the production; one said she had gone over 20 hours, both during the games and while they were in Las Vegas before and after filming. (Contestants said they had expected the production to provide them with meals for the duration of their time in Nevada.)
One meal, described by several contestants, included a tiny portion of cold oatmeal, one hard-boiled egg and a few pieces of raw vegetables.
Meals throughout the games were small and sporadic, contestants said. It was difficult to keep track of time without watches or phones, but contestants estimated they had been fed twice a day, once in the early morning and again in the afternoon or evening. A spokesperson for MrBeast said contestants had been offered three meals a day.
On a few occasions, the production staff passed around small Feastables chocolate bars, a brand created by Mr. Donaldson, and filmed some people eating and praising the candy, contestants said.
People with food allergies and dietary restrictions said they had experienced even more trouble. Before the competition, contestants filled out forms detailing their dietary needs. An F.A.Q. document provided to contestants in advance of the event, and reviewed by The Times, said that all dietary and food restrictions would be “taken into consideration.”
But several contestants said they had been served food they were allergic to and that alternatives had not been provided.
“We were treated horribly,” a contestant said. “They took on this challenge of 2,000 competitors. They should have known they needed an enormous crew to handle this correctly.”
Hungry, Bruised and Bleeding
Mr. Donaldson presided over the field as the first scenes of the competition were filmed in the stadium. Contestants described how he had stepped out of a shrinelike structure and onto a platform above $5 million in cash as they were instructed to cheer. “We’re all just looking up at the sky, screaming at him like he’s god,” one contestant said. Guards dressed entirely in black, complete with face coverings, flanked the field.
During the opening speeches, one contestant recalled, Mr. Donaldson encouraged the participants to speak up and ask for help from the staff if they needed it. A psychologist also introduced himself to the competitors at the outset, explaining that health and safety were priorities on set, several participants recalled. Reached by phone by The Times after the games, that psychologist, Barry Goldstein, declined to comment on the event.
Several contestants said that when they had sought out production staff members for assistance with medical care, food and hygiene issues, the staff members were often not helpful and appeared disorganized. Some staff members yelled and cursed at contestants, one participant said.
Despite reassurance that contestants’ medications would be distributed to them when needed, several contestants said they had not received their medication on time — including one contestant who needed insulin — instead receiving it hours, or even days, after their scheduled dosing times. One contestant said she had initially been denied the food she required to take her medication and had been told by staff members that she didn’t actually need to eat. After asking repeatedly, she was given half a banana.
Contestants were instructed to supply the production staff with a Ziploc bag containing five days’ worth of undergarments, which would be distributed to contestants once the games were underway. But several contestants said they had waited hours or even days to receive their clean underwear.
One woman said that when she and a group of contestants who were menstruating during the event had asked the production staff about getting their underwear more quickly, she had been told that it was “not a medical emergency,” and she recalled that a nearby member of the production staff had laughed at the women’s pleading.
Contestants felt that the staff was overwhelmed by the volume of competitors.
In addition to these behind-the-scenes issues, things did not appear to run much more smoothly when it came to the competition itself.
The first challenge involved five teams of 400 people pulling ropes attached to 10,000-pound weights as fast as possible. The issues began, participants said, when they were broken into those teams. A scramble for team jerseys quickly became chaotic and frightening, several said, describing a crush of people pushing and shoving other contestants while the production staff was unable to calm the crowd. One contestant described hyperventilating amid the scene; another said she had been “almost horizontal” and had feared being trampled.
Some male contestants refused to pass jerseys to female contestants, with the result that one of the teams was predominantly women, contestants said. Several people interviewed for this article felt they had not had a fair chance at winning the prize money, given the way the teams were formed.
One contestant said she had left the stadium bruised and bleeding after being injured and eliminated in the first challenge. She was handed $1,000 in a stack of dollar bills as a consolation prize but said she had to hand the money back to producers after the cameras were off. Competitors were told they would receive their real payments later, she said, but as of publication time, she had not yet been paid.
Several contestants told The Times they had since been contacted by the production team and offered an additional $1,000.
While contestants were free to leave the competition at any time, many stayed despite the conditions, hoping to win the grand prize. Those who made it past the first challenge were given toiletry kits and sleeping bags and slept on the stadium’s turf floor.
Contestants said it was difficult to get much sleep during the games, noting they had often been expected to sleep during daylight hours in the sunny stadium and film challenge takes at night. One contestant said she had expected that difficulty, given that there had often been elements of sleep deprivation in Mr. Donaldson’s previous competitions.
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. One contestant, a self-professed longtime fan of Mr. Donaldson’s who is still in the game, said she was nervous about her safety but planned to continue.
“We are grateful that virtually all of those invited to Toronto for our next production have enthusiastically accepted our invitation,” the MrBeast spokesperson wrote.
In screenshots from a group chat provided to The Times, some of the remaining contestants appeared unbothered by the experience.
They had signed a contract that they were willing to die for this.
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