Prime Video has renewed Beast Games, the controversial Squid Game-inspired game show created by YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson. It looks as though the class action lawsuit by Season One contestants hasn’t done much to deter Amazon from doing it all over again.
Announced on Monday, Beast Games will be getting two more seasons, enabling yet more struggling people to battle it out for a significant cash prize. The first season featured 1,000 contestants competing in various challenges for a sum which grew to $10 million by the last episode.
“Y’ALL ARE NOT READY FOR THE BIG STUFF WE HAVE PLANNED,” Donaldson wrote in a post on X.
Donaldson also addressed his previous revelation that he lost “tens of millions” of dollars on Beast Games‘ first season, which cost over $100 million to produce.
“Going bigger is my specialty, [going bankrupt is] the least of my concerns haha,” wrote Donaldson, responding to an X user’s query on the matter. “Yeah ideally don’t lose 8 figures though.”
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Amazon claims that Beast Games is its most-watched unscripted show ever, with 50 million viewers within less than a month of its premiere last December. However, these viewership numbers may have come at the expense of participants’ wellbeing, with Beast Games‘ production having faced significant criticism regarding the issue.
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Beast Games contestants’ lawsuit claimed production ‘void of humane standards’
Alleged problems with Beast Games‘ production first surfaced when the first round of games was filmed in Las Vegas last July. At the time, Vital Vegas reported that multiple contestants and at least one staff member alleged poor conditions, while a source at a local hospital further claimed that “countless” participants were admitted due to lack of food and water.
A representative for MrBeast denied such reports, stating that there were three medical events, two of which were unrelated to the production and one of which involved dehydration.
However, The New York Times reported one month later that Beast Games contestants had accused the production of severe mismanagement. Specifically, contestants claimed that they suffered physical injuries and were provided with inadequate food and medical care. The production also allegedly took possession of contestants’ medicine, which was then difficult to access when needed, while participants who were menstruating reportedly weren’t provided with underwear.
Several contestants further claimed that they had been told there would be 1,000 participants, only to discover twice that number upon arrival. This large number of people halved contestants’ odds at winning the grand prize. The original 2,000 were subsequently cut down to 1,000 for a video on Donaldson’s YouTube channel, not even making it to Prime Video’s Beast Games series proper.
A MrBeast representative told The New York Times that the “promotional video shoot… was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues, which we are currently reviewing.”
Then in September, several past Beast Games contestants filed a lawsuit in a California court accusing MrBeast’s production company and Amazon of a laundry list of offences. These allegations included failure to pay minimum wages or overtime, failure to provide uninterrupted meal or rest breaks, sexual harassment, negligent infliction of emotional distress, unfair business practices, and false advertising. The lawsuit even claimed that the production was “so void of humane standards” that MrBeast’s production crew allegedly offered to cover the cost of contestants’ therapy.
All of this isn’t even to mention the questionable premise of basing a reality show on Squid Game‘s dystopian capitalist death game. Considering the cruelty of Beast Games‘ inspiration, it’s unsurprising that real contestants allegedly didn’t have a great time.
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