"YouTuber MrBeast, Amazon sued over ‘hostile work environment’ on ‘Beast Games’"

Contestants on MrBeast’s upcoming competition series have sued the popular YouTube star’s production company and Amazon for sexual harassment, failure to pay minimum wages and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other allegations.

The plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing Amazon Alternative, MrB2024 and another production company, Off One’s Base, of subjecting them to “unreasonable, unsafe, and unlawful employment conditions.” The complaint identifies several of the contestants as Los Angeles County or California residents.

The plaintiffs allegedly were hired to appear on “Beast Games,” billed by Amazon as “the biggest reality competition series,” boasting 1,000 contestants and a $5-million prize. The show was set to premiere on the Seattle-based tech company’s streaming service, Prime Video.

“Defendant production companies and Amazon shamelessly exploited the labor of ... people who served as contestants” on the program, the 54-page complaint reads.

“Unfortunately, the supposedly magnanimous MrBeast did not want to use ... alleged unconstrained resources to provide fair wages, or even bare-minimum-legal working conditions, to the contestants whose labor comprised the core commercial value of Beast Games.”

A substantial amount of detail in the lawsuit is redacted in what the complaint describes as “a good faith effort to comply with” the defendants’ “overbroad confidentiality provisions ... as well as to preserve the confidentiality and privacy interests of the plaintiffs who wish to avoid opprobrium.”

Representatives for Amazon and MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment. [...]

According to the lawsuit, female contestants “particularly and collectively suffered” under a “hostile work environment” pervaded by “misogyny and sexism.” The companies allegedly did nothing to protect female contestants from sexual harassment. [...]