Illustration: Rob & Robin Sep 22nd 2024

FIVE MILLION DOLLARS were on offer to contestants in “Beast Games”, a new game show being made for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. Instead, some participants received physical injuries, emotional distress and sexual harassment, according to a complaint filed in a Los Angeles court on September 16th. Amazon and the show’s creator, Jimmy Donaldson, a 26-year-old YouTuber known as MrBeast, have not commented on the lawsuit. But the fiasco has reassured some Hollywood executives that they have little to fear from social-media upstarts.

Should they be so confident? On the face of it, social-media stars are struggling to break into traditional media. MrBeast, who with 316m followers runs YouTube’s biggest channel, is not the only one to have stumbled. Ryan Kaji, a 12-year-old YouTuber, released a feature film last month which bombed in theatres. Disney’s reality show about the D’Amelios, a TikTok dynasty, was cancelled in June. Television presenters such as Tucker Carlson, who makes a show for X, have embraced social media only after being dropped by the mainstream sort.