A firestorm of allegations have, for months, swirled around multimillionaire YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, as well as the people and companies linked to him.
Now, a class-action complaint related to alleged wrongdoing in the making of Beast Games, a forthcoming game show on Prime Video that Amazon earlier this year touted would be “the biggest reality competition series ever,” has been filed on behalf of at least five unnamed plaintiffs who were contestants on the program.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The complaint, filed Monday with the Los Angeles Superior Court, names MrBeast-linked company MRB2024 LLC, Amazon Studios’ unscripted division Amazon Alternative LLC, and independent production company Off One’s Base LLC, as defendants and seeks a jury trial to determine unspecified monetary damages—“likely totaling in the millions of dollars,” according to a press statement from the plaintiffs’ lawyers—including for alleged unpaid wages and subjecting participants, particularly female ones, to hostile work conditions.
The lawsuit, however, is unlikely to go to trial, as class actions typically settle before trial, Camron Dowlatshahi, a Los Angeles-based lawyer specializing in entertainment and employment injury cases, tells TIME. “I would expect the same here,” he said, adding that the claims outlined in the complaint appear to him to be “a difficult argument to win on.”
The complaint—a redacted version of which was first published by Variety—claims that the defendants are responsible for the mistreatment and neglect of over 1,000 Beast Games participants during taping this summer, and that the participants were treated as employees and are due compensation for their services and for numerous alleged labor law violations they encountered. It also alleges that the number of contestants participating in the competition—and thus the expected odds of winning the much-publicized $5 million prize—was misrepresented to participants as 1,000 when it was later revealed to be more. (TIME previously reported that Donaldson revealed to contestants that there were actually 2,000 initial participants.)
“While participants knew upon signing the contract at the production’s inception that they were facing a potentially long and challenging competition, they allege getting a lot more than they bargained for,” said the lawyers’ statement. “Several contestants ending up hospitalized, while others reported suffering physical and mental complications while being subjected to chronic mistreatment, degradation and, for the female contestants, hostile working conditions.”
Beast Games has not yet been given a release date. Dowlatshahi, the entertainment lawyer, tells TIME he does not foresee it being canceled as a result of the lawsuit, though he says that backlash from bad publicity “could see subsequent seasons being canceled or not renewed,” and that if the defendants do ultimately end up going to trial and are held liable, “then the show would be over.”
Representatives for MrBeast and Amazon did not immediately respond to TIME’s requests for comment.
Among the complaint’s lengthy list of causes of action, most of the alleged counts leveled against the defendants relate to the plaintiffs’ claim that contestants on the show were employees under California law but were “wrongfully and willfully misclassified.” As a result, the complaint alleges the companies failed to pay minimum wages and overtime, failed to provide meal and rest breaks, and violated multiple other labor laws. It also claimed that the defendants “exercised total control” over the contestants’ activities—including their access to personal belongings, their movement, clothes, and sleeping arrangements.
“Participants entered into contracts and they were promised compensation for their services. Their expectation of compensation, along with them being consistently under the control and supervision of the production staff, makes them employees under California law,” said Robert N. Pafundi, one of multiple lead counsel for the plaintiffs, in a statement.
According to the complaint, the show had a $100-million budget. It also references Donaldson saying in an interview with YouTubers Colin and Samir in March that money is “not a constraint” and that Amazon had given him “all creative control” and the ability to do “whatever [he] wanted.”
The complaint alleges that Donaldson, however, “did not want to use the alleged unconstrained resources to provide fair wages, or even bare-minimum-legal working conditions.” Instead, it alleges, the defendants “employed superior bargaining power” to have contestants sign “unconscionable contracts” with “illegal terms and illusory obligations” and that the defendants obtained undeserved tax credits based on misrepresented employment conditions of the production.
The most serious of the allegations in the complaint are that the defendants “created, permitted to exist, and fostered a culture and pattern and practice of sexual harassment.”
According to the complaint, female contestants “collectively suffered” as the working environment on Beast Games “systematically fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism” while its staff “did nothing.”
Sexual harassment damages, however, “will be very difficult to prove on a class-wide basis,” entertainment lawyer Dowlatshahi tells TIME, as they are typically “an individualized inquiry, not suitable for class determination.”
Parts of the complaint have been redacted for confidentiality and privacy reasons, particularly those which dealt with sexual harassment allegations. But in the press statement from the plaintiffs’ lawyers about the case, one unnamed female plaintiff said: “I expected to be challenged, but I didn’t think I would be treated like nothing—less than nothing. And as one of the women, I can say it absolutely felt like a hostile environment for us. We honestly could not have been respected less—as people, much less employees—if they tried.”
The complaint points to a purported handbook leaked last month by YouTuber Rosanna Pansino titled “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production,” which the complaint says “provides insight into the boys-will-be-boys working conditions that are seemingly promoted by Mr. Donaldson.” The handbook, which has not been verified, states in one part: “If talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them. (assuming they know all the risks and arn’t [sic] missing context on why it’s not safe) People like when we are in our natural element of stupidity. Really do everything you can to empower the boys when filming and help them make content. Help them be idiots.”
Lizelle S. Brandt, another lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said the production staff “not only participated in, but also created, conditions that fostered a hostile work environment and culminated in the sexual harassment of female participants. While we cannot undo what they have suffered at the hands of those they trusted, we want to at least bring them some measure of justice.”
