Changes are coming to the “Beast Team.”
In response to ongoing criticism — some of which has been tied to contentious production of the Amazon original Beast Games — MrBeast is launching an internal investigation. In an email sent to his employees, Jimmy Donaldson outlined the steps he plans to take to improve the working conditions at his company.
The Associated Press viewed the internal memo and confirmed that it was delivered to MrBeast employees. “As your leader, I take responsibility, and I am committed to continue to improve and evolve my leadership style,” Donaldson wrote. “I recognize that I also need to create a culture that makes all our employees feel safe and allows them to do their best work.”
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Three weeks ago, the MrBeast empire seemed to be soaring high. The North Carolina-based creator had become the first YouTuber with 300 million subscribers, had hit a new milestone in his effort to clean up the world’s oceans, and continued to excel in areas like branded content and retail.
Everything changed when longtime MrBeast collaborator Ava Kris Tyson announced that she would leave Donaldson’s company. Tyson, who had been accused of sending inappropriate messages to a minor, described the allegations as her attempt at “bad edgy humor.”
Days after Tyson’s departure, controversy began to swirl around Beast Games. Creator Rosanna Pansino boosted claims about the unsafe production environment on the Amazon original. Among other allegations, Beast Games contestants spoke up about serious injuries suffered on set and withheld medications. In response, Donaldson’s team blamed the chaotic production process on a number of factors, including weather and the global CrowdStrike outage.
That explanation was only the beginning of the reckoning at MrBeast HQ. In the internal memo, Donaldson announced a slew of structural changes: He will hire new execs, including a Chief Human Resources Officer and a Chief Financial Officer. Employees will be asked to attend mandatory training related to subjects like safety, diversity, and sensitivity, and an anonymous reporting system will be set up.
Those measures seem long overdue, but if Donaldson wants to make lasting change at his company, he may need to investigate himself as well. One of his sharpest critics in the media has been the YouTuber DogPack404; in a widely circulated video, he called MrBeast a fraud who fakes the outcomes of his videos. He returned to his channel less than two weeks later with a 50-minute attack that calls MrBeast a “sociopath.”
“Everybody loves Jimmy, and behind closed doors he is not super great,” DogPack says in the video. “That image is cultivated purposefully and intentionally. It’s branding, it’s marketing, it’s YouTube.”
Another one of DogPack’s claims is that Donaldson forces his employees to limit the use of their personal social media accounts, so that they won’t get big outside of the MrBeast brand. That allegation was corroborated by former MrBeast employee Jake Franklin, who claimed that Donaldson’s mom asked him to delete his socials when he was hired by the North Carolina-based firm.
MrBeast team member Chucky Appleby refuted DogPack’s first video, characterizing it as “lies” from a former employee who was let go for “erratic behavior.” The MrBeast team hasn’t responded to DogPack’s second video, and the disgruntled creator has teased an upcoming third video that will discuss sexual misconduct at MrBeast HQ.
That conversation could concern Tyson, who — beyond the initial allegation against her — has been accused of pressuring employees into sexual acts. As part of his memo to employees, MrBeast said that he had hired the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to conduct a full investigation of the allegations against Tyson.
Even as critics question the character of Donaldson and his most maligned employees, the MrBeast machine continues to hum, at least from a viewership perspective. The latest video on the primary MrBeast channel has accrued 130 million views less than a week after its initial upload date.
