MrBeast sued by ‘Beast Games’ participants for alleged sexual assault and ‘long-term abuse’
YouTuber MrBeast has been named in a lawsuit filed by five contestants from his upcoming reality competition show “Beast Games.”
The mass lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges the defendants — including Amazon, MrBeast, 26, and his independent production company, Off One’s Base LLC — said the unnamed plaintiffs suffered “persistent abuse,” sexual harassment and more on the set of the Prime Video series, filmed over the summer.
In a redacted version of the lawsuit, the contestants said they are seeking a jury trial to determine monetary damages, “which will likely be in the millions of dollars.”
The five plaintiffs claimed they were held in “unfair, unsafe and unlawful employment conditions.”
The complaints listed in the suit include sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, negligence infliction of emotional distress, failure to provide uninterrupted meal breaks, failure to provide uninterrupted rest breaks, failure to pay minimum wages, failure to pay overtime, false advertising, unfair business practices, etc.
The suit specifically claims that the show — which reportedly has a $100 million budget — misrepresented itself by telling participants it would have 1,000 attendees, but “upon arriving” they learned there were even more participants.
The lawsuit said this decreased contestants’ chances of winning the $5 million prize.
The complaint also alleges that MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson) did not want to use the supposedly unlimited resources available for his show to provide fair wages or even minimum legal working conditions.
Instead, MrBeast and the defendants allegedly “used superior bargaining power to force competitors to sign unfair contracts with illegal terms and deceptive obligations,” according to the lawsuit.
The defendants were specifically accused of “creating, allowing to exist, and fostering a culture, pattern, and practice of sexual harassment, including a hostile work environment.”
The Post has contacted MrBeast’s rep for comment.
“While participants knew when they signed contracts at the start of production that they faced a potentially long and challenging competition, they allege they received far more than they expected,” attorneys for the five unnamed people who filed the suit said in a statement.
“Several contestants had to be hospitalised, while others reported suffering from physical and mental complications, in addition to facing persistent abuse, humiliation and hostile working conditions for female contestants,” the statement further said.
“Beast Games” was announced by Amazon in March.
The show was described as “the largest reality competition series with 1,000 contestants competing for a cash prize of $5 million — the largest single prize in television and streaming history.”
The show’s host and executive producer, MrBeast, said at the time, “My goal is to make the best show possible and prove that YouTubers and creators can be successful on other platforms. Amazon gave me the creative control I needed to try and make this happen. I hope I can make the YouTube community proud.”
The famous internet star has been involved in other controversies before.
He admitted to using “inappropriate language” during his early online days over the summer. It was also alleged that his former longtime colleague Ava Chris Tyson made inappropriate sexual comments to minors.
