IATSE Announces Contract with ‘Beast Games’ Season 3

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) has reached an agreement with the producers of “Beast Games” Season 3.

The new contract will cover more than 500 crew members working on the production, which is based in Greenville, N.C. Members working on the production will receive back pay and benefits for pre-production work that has already been completed and will remain covered by this agreement for this season and subsequent seasons.

“Organizing Season 3 of ‘Beast Games‘ boiled down to IATSE solidarity in this difficult production environment,” said Michael F. Miller, Jr., Department Director of the Motion Picture & Television Production Department. “As employment in our industry continues to face challenges from predatory employers looking to take advantage of the industry contraction, our members and their Local leaders are showing that they have the strength to stand together to maintain standards in the face of repeated attacks on their livelihoods by greedy employers.”

The second season of the competition-reality series was made under IATSE agreements, but the third season started as a non-union production. IATSE members and Locals across the United States made a collective push to organize this large-scale production.

This development is the latest in a growing string of organizing efforts in entertainment sectors that have traditionally lacked union representation, including social media, YouTube, video games and visual effects. Workers in these fields face many of the same challenges as “traditional” film and television production crews, including long hours, unstable employment and limited benefits.

By bringing collective bargaining to these spaces, IATSE is helping set standards for fair pay, safety and respect as the industry continues shifting and adopting new distribution models. Entertainment workers interested in unionizing their workplace can visit iatse.net/join to contact an organizer.

MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, is the biggest YouTuber in the world with over 402 million subscribers. “Beast Games” became Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted series ever after it launched in 2024.