Viewers ‘feel sick’ watching $100,000,000 show with dismal Rotten Tomatoes score
Amazon Prime Video reality competition series Beast Games has been blasted by viewers, despite breaking several records.
Created by YouTuber MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, the programme has the largest cash prize in TV and streaming history of $5,000,000 (£3,993,000).
Not only that, but it reportedly had a budget of $100,000,000 (£79,600,00) – one of the biggest ever.
In Beast Games, one thousand players battle it out through a series of ‘physical, mental and social’ challenges for a chance to win the jackpot in a contest that has been compared to Squid Game and Hunger Games.
Before the show landed on Amazon Prime on December 19, it was hit by claims of sexual harassment, ‘inhumane’ conditions and insufficient wages by contestants. In November, MrBeast said on X the allegations were ‘blown out of proportion.’
On X, fans were left appalled after watching the first ‘dystopian’ episode which premiered on December 19 and argued it encouraged the ‘worst of human nature’ as the players behave ‘appallingly’ to remain in the competition.
@fakeart09 raged: ‘#BeastGames represents the worst of human nature, selfish, individualistic, push someone down so you can stand high all directed by a guy who broke the system and now throws endless amounts of money around to push people to their limits. It’s squid game capitalism.’
Echoing their sentiment, @JediChai fumed: ‘I just watched Beast Games episode 1 & I literally feel sick to my stomach. There is something so evil about packaging this sadistic working class torture porn as entertainment.’
@DustinGenereux said: ‘This new Mr Beast show is some dystopian Hunger Games type [garbage]. The way they toy with people for $5 million is some psychological warfare and the way the contestants treat each other is wild.’
@AndrewJ626 added: ‘Against my better judgment, I tuned into Beast Games and it is pretty bleak. Contestants screaming at each other hysterically and crying because they have massive debt and mouths to feed while Jimmy be like “FOR THE NEXT WEEK YOU WILL ONLY BE EATING FEASTABLES”.’
The show also scored a dismal Rotten Tomatoes rating, with a shockingly low 17% Average Tomatometer and a 74% Average Popcornmeter.
However, some Beast Games viewers enjoyed the show and described it as ‘entertaining.’
Among them was @totah_john, who raved: ‘Beast Games is so damn good. I’m shocked.’
@Henry_Taylor04 commented: ‘It does make human beings seem selfish and violently obsessed with money But it’s good TV… and I’m sad to admit that I myself enjoyed it.’
@Sourheart_YT wrote: ‘I watched the first two episodes of Beast Games and I gotta say; we live in a blessed timeline. This is literally the largest game show/psychological experiment ever mustered in human history and no one else could have put it together but Mr Beast. VERY hype to see how it ends.’
On the social media site, Jimmy, 26, responded to Beast Games’ backlash after a fan complained IGN gave the show two out of ten stars, for ‘shock value.’
Jimmy replied: ‘Yeah, sad one person who doesn’t like me can just label something a thousand people poured their lives into a 2/10 when it’s clearly not.
‘The show as future episodes drop is phenomenal especially once we get the number of contestants down and you get to know them!’
In August, a Beast Games competitor claimed to The New York Times they were ‘not fed or watered‘ during filming at Allegiant Stadium in Nevada.
One woman also said that when she and other contestants were menstruating and had requested more underwear, they were told it was ‘not a medical emergency’.
Another said she left the stadium ‘bruised and bleeding’ while others witnessed people ‘vomiting and appearing to pass out’.
In a message to The Times, a spokesperson for MrBeast said the shoot was ‘unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communications issues’.
Several months later, five anonymous contestants announced they were suing MrBeast and Amazon, claiming insufficient wages, sexual harassment, and ‘gross mistreatment and neglect’.
According to the legal complaint, seen by The Washington Post, several contestants were hospitalised or suffered physical injuries during the show. Some were also deprived of sleep, food, and medical care, the lawsuit states.
The complaint also mentions allegations of sexual harassment ‘throughout the production’.
In a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter in August, a spokesperson for the YouTuber said: ‘The MrBeast promotional video shoot, which included over 2,000 participants, was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather, and other unexpected logistical and communications issues, which we are currently reviewing, but we are grateful that virtually all of those invited to Toronto for our next production have enthusiastically accepted our invitation.
‘We have communicated directly with 97 per cent of the 2,000 people who attended to ask for feedback, have launched a formal review of the process, and have taken steps to ensure that we learn from this experience and we are excited to welcome hundreds of men and women to the world’s largest game show in history.’
In November on X, Mr Beast was asked by an account if Beast Games was the show ‘where a lot of contestants complained of terrible conditions.’
In response, he said: ‘We have tons of behind the scenes dropping when the show does to show how blown out of proportion these claims were. Just can’t release it now because it would spoil the games.’
The most expensive TV shows that cost more than $10,000,000 to make
According to reports, some of the most expensive TV shows include The Rings of Power, Stranger Things, Andor, WandaVision, Game of Thrones and The Last of Us.
It’s also claimed Friends cost a whopping $10million per episode by the final seasons, largely due to the cast’s salaries.
According to Collider, 5 of the most expensive shows to make include:
- Friends, $10million per episode and a total of 234 episodes
- ER, ranging from $2million per episode in earlier seasons and $13million in later ones
- Game of Thrones, $15million per episode and a total of 74 episodes
- Stranger Things, a reported $30million per episode and a total of 42 episodes
- The Rings of Power, $58million per episode and a total of 16 episodes
Metro has contacted Mr Beast and Amazon for comment.
This article was originally published on December 23, 2024.
Beast Games is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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