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Louise Thomas
Editor
The controversy surrounding MrBeast’s new game show Beast Games is contiuing, with staff who worked on the show calling for the YouTuber’s team to be “blacklisted”.
MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson is the biggest YouTuber in the world but is facing increased scrutiny for the upcoming series, reportedly the largest reality show in history, which has been produced for Amazon Prime.
Earlier this month, a class action lawsuit was filed against him by contestants on the show claiming they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment” and sexual harassment.
Now a lengthy report from Las Vegas 3 News, says that staff who worked on the show have called it “beyond embarrassing” and that it was the most “unprofessional” production they had ever worked on.
One production worker Rick, who worked as a contestant wrangler for the show said that communication on set was “terrible” which caused a number of problems, including with the medics who struggled to monitor what medication was required for various contestants.
The report claims that contestants were not allowed to bring any belongings, including medication, with them into Allegiant Stadium, where 2000 contestants were based for a preliminary qualifying ‘episode’ for the show intended for YouTube.
The majority of contestants were staying at the Rio and Luxor casinos where the production medics were also based but they had “no idea that [some contestants] were at other casinos”. Those contestants had their items collected by production staff that promised to deliver them to the “appropriate department”.
A medic named Mona claims “their stuff was supposed to be turned into us and never was” and that “everything was on the fly. We didn’t have a real understanding of what they expected, or even if they knew what they were expecting. I don’t think that it was planned out because all the information was not given.”
Another contestant wrangler, Kara, who worked at Allegiant Stadium between 18-21 July, said there was also a huge sanitary issue with the portable toilets used on set.
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She claims that she only saw the portable toilets emptied once during the four days on set which resulted in overflowing. Kara added on the third day: “We had a guy come up to us with his sleeping bag, and his sleeping bag was covered in excrement.”
Kara also said that an unnamed contestant wrangler was threatened with “termination” after they refused to clean up the mess, despite not being given the proper equipment to deal with human waste.
“That’s a major OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] violation. You don’t ask people to clean porta potties like that”, she added.
A third contestant wrangler, Hannah, who was in charge of guiding and coordinating contestants said that she felt “unprofessional” after she was left without any call sheets and that she “should have had more protocols to help me [do my job]”.
She also claims that one contestant had a seizure and “they just left him there” with the incident only being brought to their attention an hour later with the community ambulance medical team then treating the patient.
In August, The New York Times reported that competitors now say they have not received adequate food or medical care.
“We signed up for the show, but we didn’t sign up for not being fed or watered or treated like human beings,” one contestant told The Times on the condition of anonymity, as they had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
One meal, described to The Times by several different contestants, consisted of a small portion of cold oatmeal, a few pieces of raw vegetables and a single hard-boiled egg.
MrBeast has been contacted for comment.
