YouTube’s biggest icon drew 2,000 contestants to Las Vegas to compete in his upcoming reality TV show. With a $5 million grand prize, production documents obtained by News 3 describe the show as “the biggest competition in game show history.”
In March, Amazon announced a collaboration between YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and Amazon MGM Studios to produce “Beast Games.” Donaldson has the most subscribed channel on YouTube, with more than 308 million subscribers. He is best known for his philanthropic work, nonprofit collaborations, and viral social videos, which regularly reach over 100 million views.
Beast Games would be Donaldson’s first creative-led venture in the streaming space and, according to participants, it shows.
Multiple Beast Games participants communicated to News 3 accounts of people experiencing seizures, diabetic shock and several hospitalizations from physical injuries alongside disorganized handling of medication and inexperienced production leadership.
Participants also reported accounts of lost undergarments forcing contestants to wear the same undergarments for days, staff misplacing luggage, porta potties leaking into sleeping areas, poor organization, contestants physically assaulting each other and poor management of local production staff.
Production issues come amidst recent controversy for the content creator. Donaldson announced on X that he was hiring a private investigator to look into former MrBeast collaborator Ava Kris Tyson who is accused of grooming a minor.
Documents and communication obtained by News 3 identified the Las Vegas production as a Beast Games production for YouTube. Donaldson has said that a pilot “episode zero” was planned to premiere on his YouTube channel to prelude the Amazon Prime Video show. Participants were told that a thousand contestants would advance onto the main show.
People involved in the Beast Games production, filmed in Allegiant Stadium from July 18 to 22, signed nondisclosure agreements preventing them from sharing information about the production. News 3 spoke with more than a dozen contestants and production staff about issues with the production on the condition of anonymity. All names have been adjusted to protect source identities.
Sally said that many aspects of the production felt disorganized between local production talent and the MrBeast team. “It seemed like nobody at any level really seemed to know what was fully going on.”
Since contestants were not allowed to bring any belongings on set themselves, they were asked to hand over their medication and undergarments to staff, said contestant Sally. Those items were promised to be distributed over the course of the production; however, that did not happen.
One diabetic woman was denied her insulin for two days and exhibited signs of diabetic shock, said contestant Sally.
“It wasn't until she was passing out and becoming unconscious that they finally gave her her medicine and supposedly adequate enough food,” said Sally.
Another contestant, an older woman, had given the production team five days worth of heart medication but was denied her medication on the first night, said Sally. Once the medication was brought back to her, she was missing four days worth.
A production staff worker told News 3 that medication was taken from contestants on the first day of production—before the medic team was properly settled to handle and disperse them.
“It was horribly unorganized,” said Sally. “They lost people's medications. Some people waited to try to get their medications back, and they couldn't find them at the stadium.”
Contestant Emily went to the medic area on the second day of filming after being eliminated to pick up her prescribed medication. She said a medic was rummaging through boxes of Ziploc bags containing contestants' medications.
At that point, Emily said most contestants had not been able to access their medication for nearly two days, and several dozen people were crowding the medic area. One woman, Emily recalled, was confrontational about getting her medication and was threatened with disqualification.
According to Emily, the production team had promised to deliver medication to contestants on the field, but most people could not take their medication at the time they were supposed to — if at all.
“I honestly can't imagine why anybody would ask for medication. That seems a little odd,” said UNLV film professor Andi Isaacs. A veteran production executive, Isaacs spent two decades in all production areas, working on large-scale productions like Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and The Twilight Saga.
While it would not be unusual to hand over luggage, phones and other items for inspection at a production site, Isaacs said it is “highly unusual” to request that people’s medications be handed over.
“How is anyone supposed to manage 2,000 different people returning their medication at the time when they said they needed it?” asked Isaacs.
Safety
Contestants signed agreements stating they were “in excellent physical, emotional, psychological, and mental health” and would be involved in “strenuous physical and mental activities and exposure to high-pressure situations” during production.
While waivers were signed indicating the assumption of all risks involved with the production, sources reported contestants assaulting each other while staff watched. Several contestants reported people were wheeled out in wheelchairs, and production continued filming despite injuries on set.
“They were animals. They couldn't control themselves,” Rose said of contestants’ behaviors during challenges. “I saw people get hurt I was so scared.”
In one event, people raced to pick up jerseys of different colors to select their teams. Sally said she spoke with a girl punched in the stomach for their jersey. Another person she spoke with was trampled and had to be pushed in a wheelchair afterward.
One challenge involved pulling a large rope, said Sally. During the challenge, Sally witnessed medics congregate in the area. She found out afterward that a girl had gotten knocked down with the rope tangled around her neck.
“Production was yelling at the people that were behind them to just keep pulling on the rope,” said Emily who saw multiple people get tangled in the rope. “[Contestants] stopped, thankfully, and went to help the people get untangled.”
Reality TV presents unique challenges, said Brian, a production manager who was not involved with the show. Without being on the set, Brian could not judge if the production followed appropriate safety measures, but said it was conceivable for accidents to happen.
“You put 2,000 people in an arena and ask them to interact, things are going to happen,” said Brian. Contingencies should be prepared in the event of a workplace accident — especially since physical challengers were involved, he said. There are also instances where crew may need to operate equipment, such as lifts, which could result in injuries.
“What matters,” Brian explains, “is did you make all possible efforts to mitigate against it? And how do you react when things go wrong?”
Squid Game: The Challenge, a game show based on the South Korean drama, was considered “one of the biggest, most complex reality TV shows ever done”, said Brian. There were 456 contestants, and Beast games involved more than four times the contestants.
“It's not surprising, maybe that things might have gone awry sometimes,” said Brian. “That’s a pretty big logistical challenge to take on.”
Safety is of utmost priority on film sets, explained Isaacs. There are always medics on set to assist and respond to medical emergencies.
Isaacs said the on-site medics provide essential care and can respond in emergencies until paramedics arrive. In some action sequences or stunts, paramedics may be prepared on standby.
“Most of the time, film sets, you're talking about sunburn or dust in the eye or, you know, upset stomach, things like that,” said Isaacs. Isaacs said having only one or two medics would not be unusual even if the production scaled past 2,000 participants.
According to Isaacs, film productions typically follow the rules set for safety—especially if it is a union production. However, independent productions can be “a little looser” in their rules enforcement.
Medical screening forms asked potential contestants to list their prescription and non-prescription medicines, among other questions on the applicant’s health and background. Beast Games’ has not published the criteria they used to select contestants.
Rose, another contestant, said dietary restrictions, like Celiac disease, were reasonably accommodated, but multiple News 3 sources complained about the meager food they were offered as part of the contestant challenges.
The first meal upon arriving at the venue consisted of a 1/4 cup of oatmeal, 1-2 cucumber slices, two baby carrots, a cherry tomato, a boiled egg and 2-3 celery sticks, said Rose.
During a pre-production meeting, Emily said they were told not to bring over-the-counter medications like Benadryl or Advil as that would be provided. However, medics did not have them supplied initially and were reluctant to distribute them when they did, said Emily.
Emily said she heard someone suffering from a food allergy was denied Benadryl. Sally and Rose said they witnessed medics running the area respond rudely, with expletives, towards requests for medication.
Beast Games
Donaldson said his pride as a storyteller was on the line—as was people’s perception of YouTubers. Success could mean more respect for YouTube’s content creators and brand deals for similar creators, said Donaldson on the Colin and Samir show. If the production flops, however, studios may be more reluctant to work with YouTubers and offer the same creative freedom Donaldson received to produce Beast Games.
Contestants reported that they saw no Amazon affiliation with the staff members. Mystic Art Pictures is the official casting company for Beast Games. Off One’s Base, established May 2024 in North Carolina, was the company designated as the producers of Beast Games in documents.
The MrBeast YouTube channel is not unfamiliar with large-scale productions. The team has purchased homes, a grocery store, and even islands to use as sets and story concepts.
Recently, #TeamSeas, a collaboration initiated by MrBeast and YouTuber Mark Rober, announced 34 million pounds of trash removed from beaches, rivers and the ocean. Last month, Donaldson shared a video revealing that his team had built and donated a hundred homes in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
For one video, the MrBeast team built replica sets identical to those found in Squid Games, a South Korean Netflix series that received critical acclaim. The team sourced 456 contestants to compete for the $456,000 grand prize.
The scale of productions has increased since the Squid Games video released two years ago. The average cost for a modern MrBeast YouTube video is estimated to be around $3.5 million, said Donaldson. Donaldson said the scale and production costs for the Amazon-partnered Beast Games far surpass the production costs for his YouTube videos—the Beast Games game show will be the “biggest everything in history.”
YouTube Experience is not Film Experience
With 2,000 contestants for the presumptive YouTube pilot episode and a $5 million grand prize, Beast Games could break new grounds in Hollywood and for MrBeast’s production team.
“That sounds like chaos to me. That seems like unabated chaos. And I did the wedding for Bella and Edward,” said Isaacs, describing the unprecedented scale of the Beast Games production. “That sounds chaotic and, yes, room for fault.”
Production staff was mainly divided into two camps, said preproduction worker Jack: those with MrBeast, who primarily worked as producers and supervisors, and local production talent.
Upon arrival, most contestants stayed at the Rio and Luxor, but conditions varied between the two hotel-casinos. Contestants at the Rio told News 3 they were fed well prior to their arrival for the production. Luxor contestants were less fortunate.
Jack was responsible for guiding contestants into their Luxor hotel room on their first night before they left for principal photography the following morning at Allegiant Stadium. Contestants were locked in their rooms for three to five hours without food, water or their key cards to prevent contestants from mingling, said Jack.
“Each person there, not an exaggeration, did look incredibly famished and looked almost sickly. Understandable, because not everyone is used to Las Vegas' three-digit degree weather,” said Jack, who, alongside others, raised concerns and offered to run water to the contestants but were ignored.
Jack said that after a few hours of isolation, contestants were allowed to leave their rooms to get food. He did not receive information on why they had to be isolated in that manner and what changed to enable contestants to finally leave their rooms.
Communication from local talent and contestants was largely ignored throughout the production, workers told News 3. On sets, “it is typical that someone responds in a timely manner” to any questions raised by production participants, said Jack. This is to help ensure the safety and efficiency of the production, he explained.
“It's heavily influenced [by] YouTube,” said Jack, where the smaller scale of the platform does not translate to the complexities of large studio productions. “There are many attachments in these business deals, contracts that come along with it, that I feel they were not aware of.”
“We're going to film a game show, and we're going to have these many people. All right. You forgot to say, how are we going to get them there and where are they going to stay? Where is the sleep going to happen? How are we going to store this food? Where is the equipment going to be stored when we are not filming?”
For example, it is standard for productions to prepare food and snacks on set, said Jack. The MrBeast team had purchased food and water for the Luxor production team and returned those items, he continued. “These producers did not know that the hotels and Allegiant Stadium charge bringing outside food and water.”
Typically, a locations manager will scout and handle the logistics of filming locations, said Jack.
Jack said the MrBeast team elected to withhold information from local production staff. No call sheets, schedules for the production, were provided so nobody knew where to go and when. We experienced the same confusion as the contestants, he continued.
“I've worked on feature films, commercials, and some TV series,” said Jack. “The information was always given to us at least a week or two in advance, so we would be able to plan, be aware of what we are walking into.”
“There is a lot of safety issues in that, not just in medication,” said Jack. It was his responsibility to guide contestants, but he was not provided the information to do that job. “If I don’t know what I’m doing, how are they supposed to know what they’re doing?”
Just like the contestants who struggled through physical and psychological challenges, one production staffer told News 3 they worked through 20-some hour work days without meals or breaks.
Production staff also reported to News 3 that they were only sometimes provided protective equipment for tasks, received late, unpaid lunch breaks (or sometimes none) and had difficulty finding time to access drinking water. One account reported that a production assistant was asked to pick up, barehanded, dozens of rusty nails left over by a construction crew and was scolded afterward for complaining.
Allegiant Stadium worker Rei said she heard management express disinterest in future collaboration with MrBeast because of their disrespect.
“Just absolute disaster,” said Rei, who worked on the cleanup following the filming’s conclusion. “The whole stadium is currently covered in sand.”
They were using spaces and props they were told not to, breaking items and leaving a mess to be cleaned, said Rei.
Jack said he had been looking forward to working in the MrBeast production and was disappointed in how his team handled it. Donaldson, Jack said, seemed largely ignorant of the production struggles.
“I think he is too busy with the dreams to realize that for dreams to actually happen and occur, there's a lot of planning, a lot of structure, a lot of foundation that’s needed,” said Jack.
News 3 reached out to MrBeast’s team and Mystic Art Pictures about the safety concerns raised and has not received a response.