Contestants say they were ‘exploited’ on MrBeast’s show. Raleigh firms named in lawsuit.
Amazon, a Raleigh company tied to MrBeast, and a Raleigh-based production company are the three defendants named in a new class action lawsuit filed on behalf of contestants who competed, and allegedly suffered, during the filming of Amazon’s forthcoming reality competition “Beast Games.”
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles, levies more than a dozen complaints against the Beast Games production, including that contestants weren’t paid minimum wages, experienced emotional distress, didn’t receive adequate meal breaks, and arrived under false advertising.
“The contestants were fed sporadically and sparsely,” stated the lawsuit, which listed five specific contestants as plaintiffs. Earlier, the lawsuit claims the “defendant production companies and Amazon shamelessly exploited the labor.”
MrBeast is the professional alias of Jimmy Donaldson, a 26-year-old who lives and works in the Eastern North Carolina city of Greenville. His YouTube channel has 316 million subscribers, 42 million more than the world’s second-most popular channel. MrBeast videos feature lavish philanthropic giveaways and extreme competitions where winners walk away with boats, houses, private islands, and six-figure sums.
In March, Amazon MGM Studios announced it was partnering with Donaldson to create “Beast Games,” which the streaming studio called the world’s biggest reality competition. The event would feature 1,000 contestants vying for a $5 million prize, Amazon said at the time.
But during an initial Beast Games event this summer in Las Vegas, held to halve the contestant pool from around 2,000 to 1,000, several participants described undesirable conditions.
“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 New York Times reported on Aug. 2.
Donaldson is not directly named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, one defendant is a newly created Raleigh-based company called MRB2024 which lists MrBeast’s lawyer Kevin Sayed as its manager on its state registration form. Sayed is listed on the filing documents of multiple MrBeast-connected companies, including the entity Creative Grid, which owns the land in North Greenville where MrBeast has built a large studio.
Amazon Alternative, another defendant, produces unscripted programming for the e-commerce giant’s streaming platform. In March, Amazon MGM Studios said Beast Games could be available on Prime Video in as many as 240 countries.
Asked for the company’s response to this week’s lawsuit, an Amazon spokesperson told The News & Observer “we will not be commenting at this time.”
The third defendant in the Beast Games lawsuit is a Raleigh-based independent production company called Off One’s Base, LLC. Like the entity MRB2024, Off One’s Base was created in 2024. The lawyer who filed Off One’s Base registration paperwork did not respond to an email from the N&O regarding the lawsuit.
Sayed, the manager of MRB2024, also could not be reached for comment. The phone number listed on the company’s registration paperwork goes directly to an automated message that says no voicemail has been set up and advises the caller to try again later.
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