MrBeast, YouTube's most subscribed channel and Amazon sued by 'Beast Games' contestants
MrBeast accepts the Favorite Male Creator award onstage during the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards at Microsoft Theater on March 04, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)
LOS ANGELES - Five contestants on a YouTuber's Amazon game show, "Beast Games," allege in a new lawsuit that they were subjected to mistreatment and sexual harassment while working under the terms of unfair contracts.
The plaintiffs are identified only as contestants 1-5 in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Tuesday against Amazon and Jimmy (MrBeast) Donaldson's production company, MRB2024 LLC. Donaldson is not a defendant.
The contestants allege they were not paid proper wages, including overtime, and that they also were not given meal and rest breaks that they were entitled to under law.
The suit's causes of action include sexual harassment, failure to prevent sexual harassment, unfair business practices, false advertising and a number of state Labor Code violations. The plaintiffs seek payment of all wages owed, an injunction forbidding the labor actions alleged and certification of the suit as a class-action complaint.
Representatives for Amazon and Donaldson could not be immediately reached for comment.
"Defendant production companies and Amazon shamelessly exploited the labor of ... people who served as contestants on the forthcoming $100 million MrBeast-Amazon production `Beast Games,' which Amazon promotes as the world's largest live game show with the biggest single prize in the history of television," the suit states.
The entertainment value of "Beast Games" "arises directly from the physical and emotional labor of the contestants who compete under pressure-cooker conditions for life-changing prize money, with one person purportedly to win $5 million in the end," the suit alleges.
The defendants "employed superior bargaining power to coerce the contestants to sign unconscionable contracts with illegal terms and illusory obligations," the suit alleges.
Many passages in the suit are redacted. Donaldson, 26, has more than 300 million YouTube followers.