Allegations of poor working conditions on YouTuber MrBeast’s new Amazon Studios show have pushed some people who work with creators to call for more safety oversight on their sets.
During the filming of “Beast Games,” MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, faced public backlash amid claims that he fostered an unsafe working environment. At least five contestants filed a class action lawsuit in September alleging they were “shamelessly exploited” while competing. Representatives for Donaldson have not commented on the lawsuit but previously said the production team has “taken steps to ensure that we learn from this experience.”
The accusations highlight what some in the digital production world — which typically refers to content created for social media platforms — have identified as a growing concern in the industry for years. Online content creators, they say, often fail to ensure the same basic standards for treating cast and crew that more traditional entertainment sets do.
“I’ve worked with some production companies that are just like working on a union shoot, and some of them do operate as union shoots, and others that absolutely do not,” said Mair Mulroney, an actor who previously appeared on the popular channel run by YouTuber Dhar Mann. “It’s the wild, wild west, really and truly.”
The traditional entertainment and digital media industries have not always aligned in their creative visions and methods, which has caused some tension between the two in the past. However, as digital productions grow, those who work with or under creators said some could benefit from the structure seen on traditional Hollywood sets.
Could Hollywood unions help?
Unlike Hollywood sets, most digital productions do not necessarily rely on union workers.
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YouTubers are used to calling the shots on most of their projects. Even with “Beast Games,” a reality competition program that Amazon Studios reportedly paid $100 million to acquire, Donaldson said he was granted full creative control by the more traditional studio.
When accusations about working conditions on Donaldson’s show first surfaced, many online speculated whether it was a nonunion production, which isn’t unusual for a reality show. The show was shot in Las Vegas, Toronto and Panama.
In Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) ensure there are protections in place for members on sets, like enforcing break times, assessing risks and requiring producers to accommodate requests for intimacy or stunt coordination.
Some believe the digital entertainment space — which includes a wide range of productions, including reality and scripted content — would benefit from union oversight.
“The unions have to approach new media and help it grow up,” said Scott Brown, an Emmy-nominated digital producer who previously worked for MrBeast. “Because new [digital] media has got about 15 years, the unions have 100. They’ve got to bring that knowledge.”
Representatives for SAG-AFTRA declined to comment.
An IATSE spokesperson said the union “believes that all production and post-production workers deserve fair wages, health and pension benefits and appropriate workplace protections.”
“We continue to scout for organizing opportunities in our covered work areas in all content channels,” the spokesperson said in an email.
A representative for Donaldson said the “Beast Games” shoot in Toronto worked with union members from the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET) and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC). The representative said it also had nonunion crew members.
The DGC confirmed in an email that “Beast Games” was a signatory of its side letter for reality productions and its members were allowed to work on the production, which the guild said had “a mix of non-union and union personnel.” NABET did not respond to a request for comment.
Creators would have to give up some autonomy
Producer Bernie Su said traditional media can sometimes have “asinine bureaucracy” in production that is counterintuitive to the needs of digital sets, which often produce work faster and cheaper.
Su used SAG actors in all of his Emmy-winning digital series, including “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” and “Emma Approved” on YouTube, as well as the Twitch series “Artificial.”
While he believes not every production needs to employ union-represented workers, if YouTubers ever want to use big stars, they would have to abide by SAG rules and become a union set.
YouTubers would become signatories to SAG “when it provides value to them,” Su argued.
While the entertainment industry has been slowly bouncing back from last year’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes, Mulroney said digital productions have been offering more consistent, albeit nonunion, work.
“You just kind of have to kind of go with the consequences of doing that,” she said. “And things may not always be as professional as what you would typically be used to when you work on a union set.”
In February 2023, the “consequences” of working on a nonunion set became too much for Mulroney and several of her fellow cast members who worked on creator Dhar Mann’s videos. The YouTuber, known for his videos on morality, has amassed 22.3 million followers to his channel.
A small group protested Mann, alleging that he created a “toxic” culture on his sets. They claimed he underpaid them and perpetuated a “culture of fear” in the workplace that led to actors feeling silenced, unable to take on other roles and unable to give feedback out of fear that Mann’s studio would withhold acting jobs from them as “punishment.”
At the time, Mann released a statement on Instagram calling out “misinformation being spread by protests,” saying the company does pay its actors “for any work they perform.” He said the rate for actors with speaking roles was $33-$44 per hour.
“I do acknowledge that there’s always opportunity for growth,” he wrote, saying he met with the actors and “came up with ways to improve things such as a more efficient booking system, stronger communication and more consistent hours and pay.”
Mulroney said she has not worked with Mann since the protest ended.
Representatives for Mann did not respond to a request for comment.
Mulroney still ultimately believes that YouTube is “a great place for people to be discovered, because there are no rules.”
“At the same time,” she said, “I think when something is starting to operate as a studio, if a channel is starting to operate that way and then they’re hiring full-blown productions, I do think that at that point you’ve stepped onto a different level.”
The digital media industry has reached a maturation point in recent years. Conventions like VidCon have turned from fan-oriented gatherings to a meeting point for entrepreneurial creators to learn how to grow alongside this burgeoning entertainment medium.
There has been a big push this year, including from YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, to elevate digital media productions to the level of respect and recognition that film and television receive in the entertainment industry.
But the respect goes both ways, Mulroney said, adding that some creators don’t respect the work of the cast and crew who are helping them execute a video. If YouTube and its creators want to be considered for recognition at the Emmys, Mulroney said, “then you need to play by the [entertainment industry] rules. They’re there for a reason.”
Creative control can be a sore spot between creators and Hollywood studios. In the past, the entertainment industry has tried to force traditional television models onto digital platforms, said Brown, the producer. In the mid-2010s, entertainment executives would invest in YouTube brands but often would not let them maintain their creative vision.
Over the years, it has become more widely understood that digital is its own medium with its own idiosyncrasies, according to Brown, who is now CEO of the independent, digital-focused production company Second Rodeo Productions.
Brown said creators can sometimes become “a victim of that belief that you have to do it all yourself.” But Brown said he hopes they “start to realize the power of collaboration.”
“Moving image content is a remarkably collaborative medium, and creators don’t realize it, but they’re actually limiting themselves by not entering into fruitful collaboration with good partners,” Brown said.
“I look forward to the days, that I think are not far off, where the guilds and the people who, for lack of a better term, are the producers, the studios come together and create a system that works for everybody.”
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