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MrBeast's giant reality competition faces safety complaints from initial contestants

YouTube’s biggest star MrBeast is facing complaints about the safety of contestants from the preliminary round of his ambitious “Beast Games” game show, which boasts 1,000 competitors hoping for a $5 million grand prize

The stakes for “Beast Games” aren't just high for the contestants, but for MrBeast himself, whose real name Jimmy Donaldson, as well as the recipients of his brand of “stunt philanthropy" that often entails direct gifts of cash or even houses. The show, which has already been picked up by Amazon Prime Video to air in 240 countries, is part of Donaldson's cultural expansion beyond YouTube — where his channel has 307 million subscribers, including countless young consumers who already purchase his Feastables line of candy or the burgers that bear his name. A MrBeast spokesperson said Friday that the promotional video shoot was “unfortunately complicated” by extreme weather, the widespread CrowdStrike outage that wreaked global technological havoc and “other unexpected logistical and communications issues.”

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