Forty-five days embedded with Jimmy Donaldson as he films Beast Games season two, a private-jet giveaway, a prison video and a Survivor crossover, scheduled down to the minute.
Posted
6 months ago
Duration
Format
Documentary
sincere
Views
2.2M
45.6K likes
57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
MrBeast survives 15- to 20-hour days by treating his YouTube channel as a cheap testing lab for Beast Games and by building teams that rehearse every shot before he walks on set.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
A creator who has outgrown filming alone and wants to see what a production team actually does to protect the on-camera person's time.
A producer or director in unscripted video who wants a look inside how a 1,000-contestant show is covered, tagged and story-tracked in real time.
A creator with a successful format who is wondering whether it could translate to television or a much larger budget.
Someone who hears '18-hour days' and wants to know what that schedule looks like hour by hour, and what it costs the person living it.
A marketer who needs to promote a launch and wants to see how 45 creator collabs get shot in the gaps of a filming day.
SKIP IF…
You want a step-by-step YouTube growth tutorial. This is a documentary with no checklist and no algorithm advice.
You are looking for Beast Games episode recaps or results. The show itself is background, not the subject.
Multi-million-dollar sets, drones and camera trucks are not relevant to the scale you work at and you only want tactics you can copy this week.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
MrBeast runs 15- to 20-hour days across Beast Games and his main channel, and the documentary argues the pace only works because of systems, not stamina. His YouTube channel is the test lab: a $200,000 game that holds retention on YouTube justifies a $10 million set on television, and bribes, obstacle courses and buried-alive stunts all ran on the channel first. Around him, a team rehearses every thumbnail and TikTok with body doubles so he walks in, shoots and leaves, while control rooms of story producers tag every contestant moment from episode one. The crew pipeline turns camera operators into co-hosts, 47 creator collabs get filmed during breaks, and the Survivor crossover shows the same philosophy applied to another franchise: do not say no, and shoot social before you wrap.
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Cold-open montage: the minute-by-minute schedule, the jet giveaway, the prison video, a tiger shoot, Survivor in Fiji, and a 30-second nap. Sets up the question of how one person sustains this.
01:32 – 03:09
02 · I'd rather be homeless
MrBeast on telling his mother he would rather be homeless than do anything else, her 2008 bankruptcy, and the $100,000 she hid in an account in his name. Ends with the clip where he pays off her mortgage.
03:09 – 05:08
03 · It was so cringe, I hated it
Director Tyler Conklin on meeting Jimmy in Little League, being hired as an $8-an-hour janitor alongside Chandler, and the years of being the awkward kid filming while classmates laughed.
05:08 – 07:05
04 · Doing it bigger
On the Beast Games season two set for the Captain Bribe episode. The goal is to keep the roots of the channel, virality and spectacle, while filling six hours of television instead of a 30-minute video.
07:05 – 08:44
05 · $200K to $10M ideas
The core thesis. A $200,000 game on YouTube that holds retention justifies a $10 million set on TV. The $800,000 water obstacle course became a Beast Games episode. Confidence comes from dozens of reps on the channel.
08:44 – 10:25
06 · Thumbnail shoot
Body doubles rehearse thumbnail poses nine to five so Jimmy can shoot in five minutes. The floor grid records every light, camera and person so a layout can be reset for a similar concept.
10:25 – 11:12
07 · 100 days in jail
Day 100 of a prison-survival main-channel video shot between Beast Games episodes. Check-ins are pre-planned so Jimmy films them in 15 minutes. Twenty-eight cameras roll 24/7.
11:12 – 12:27
08 · Army of story producers
Inside a control-room truck where story producers listen to a hundred microphones, tag moments by category, and build a one sheet per contestant from episode one because the finalist is unknown.
12:27 – 14:13
09 · Giving away a $2M private jet
The payoff of a 100-day video: the contestant's family arrives, he is offered half a million dollars to stay another 100 days, and he chooses his family. Producers have visited the set about 60 times.
14:13 – 16:43
10 · Man vs animal: world's highest jumper
A tiger that will not jump on cue, a two-hour delay, and a refusal to compromise on creative. The Ages 1-100 bribe that ran on YouTube becomes a Beast Games moment. A world-record high jump closes the chapter.
16:43 – 19:16
11 · Managing Jimmy's schedule
Chief of staff James Reina on balancing what Jimmy needs against what the whole company needs. Teams now set up shoots in parallel so he can film many videos a week instead of one. Sponsor read for .Store domains.
19:16 – 22:28
12 · $30,000 drones
The cannonball hunt for a $1.8 million island. Drone pilots, including a Drone Racing League world champion, fly $30,000 rigs past firing cannons while the fire department stands by for the fireworks finale.
22:28 – 23:45
13 · $5M+ of cameras and gear
A tour of the gear warehouse: thousands of serialized items, hundreds of GoPros, a 2,600-watt fixture, and a drone that drives into a shot then flies. Every angle is covered so nothing has to be scripted.
23:45 – 25:31
14 · Getting buried alive
Nine contestants are buried alive on Beast Games with four cameras inside each oversized coffin. Jimmy recalls sleeping in a coffin in his garage to test for panic attacks before his own 7-day burial.
25:31 – 27:09
15 · Videographer to co-host pipeline
The main cam op has to predict what Jimmy wants before he wants it. Karl, Tareq and now Darius went from behind the camera to on it. Jimmy on the next 24 hours: eating and filming.
27:09 – 29:40
16 · 45+ collabs
Head of marketing Sinan stages creators around the set so Jimmy can speed-run nine collabs in one night, 47 TikToks total, with stand-ins rehearsing each shot. Massive sets are a breeding ground for social content.
29:40 – 31:28
17 · Doing it bigger for TV
YouTubers collaborate and television does not, so the team went straight to Jeff Probst. Why Survivor: islands, tribes, brains versus brawn, and a host who has run the show for 27 years, Jimmy's whole life.
31:28 – 35:18
18 · Two giants, one moment: Survivor x Beast Games
In Fiji, Survivor's crew gives up its day off to film the crossover. Jimmy follows Jeff's lead rather than imposing his style. The deal started on a plane with Jeff's PR lead and a photo captioned 'let's change television'.
35:18 – 37:26
19 · The $50,000 bribe
Jeff offers a burger; Jimmy offers $50,000 to quit the challenge and Ethan takes it. Jeff explains the two shows as different social experiments: what would you do for money versus who you are when stripped of everything.
37:26 – 38:59
20 · When will you be done?
Jimmy points at Jeff, still hosting in his sixties, as proof there is no age limit. He credits Survivor's storytelling and says season two is about knowing the contestants. Both shoot social before they wrap.
38:59 – 40:39
21 · Changing the industry
The crossover's rule was 'let's not say no'. The leaked How to Succeed memo, an 11:35 pm commercial shoot, and a red 'ask for anything' phone on set tease the next episode.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
A $200,000 game that holds retention on YouTube is the only permission MrBeast needs to spend $10 million on the same idea for television.
The obstacle course that one friend ran for $800,000 on YouTube became a Beast Games episode with dozens of contestants, better lighting and a bigger set.
Stand-ins rehearse every thumbnail pose for hours so MrBeast spends about five minutes in the shoot and cannot afford to waste any of them.
A grid taped on the floor records where every light, camera and person stands so a similar concept can be reset instantly next time.
The prison set has 28 cameras rolling 24 hours a day and a custom control room that did not exist a few days earlier.
Story producers tag every funny or memorable contestant moment from episode one because nobody knows who will reach the finale.
Two of MrBeast's first hires were $8-an-hour janitors from his high school; one is now his lead director and the other a co-host.
The crew's path to being on camera is to hold the camera until everyone likes you.
Each production drone costs about $18,000 to buy and roughly $30,000 once it is kitted out for a full show, and they fly in front of firing cannons.
The camera and gear inventory is worth north of $5 million, with thousands of serialized items and about 350 individual cameras on a single shoot.
Forty-seven TikToks with other creators were shot during filming breaks by staging each creator in a different part of the set and rehearsing with stand-ins first.
Before the 7-day buried-alive video, MrBeast slept in the coffin in his garage for hours each night to find out if he would panic before cameras rolled.
Beast Games asks what you would do for money; Survivor asks who you are when everything is stripped away, which is why their prize sizes do not need to match.
The Survivor collaboration started as a conversation on a plane with Jeff Probst's PR lead, and the rule for the whole crossover was to not say no.
A set is not finished until the social content is shot on it, because a multi-million-dollar set is the cheapest possible backdrop for a hundred vertical posts.
MrBeast's mother hid $100,000 of his money in a separate account in his name so he would not end up homeless if the channel went bankrupt.
Takeaway
Test it small on YouTube, then build it huge.
WHAT TO LEARN
An 18-hour day is survivable only when the channel is the test lab, the team rehearses every shot before the talent arrives, and nobody on either side of a collaboration says no.
02I'd rather be homeless
Reinvesting every dollar back into the work scared the people who loved him most, and the fear came from their history, not his odds.
Say the ambition out loud even when it sounds absurd; the rather-be-homeless line was the commitment that made the obsession legible to others.
03It was so cringe, I hated it
Hire people who already understand how you work. Two janitors from high school became the lead director and a co-host because they grew with the content.
Posting into silence and being laughed at is part of the record; the awkward years are the same years the craft was being built.
04Doing it bigger
Keep the roots of the format when the runtime grows. Six hours of TV still has to deliver the virality and spectacle that made the 30-minute videos work.
Build the TV version from the ground up rather than copying traditional shows, because the audience came for what the channel already does.
05$200K to $10M ideas
Use your cheapest distribution to test the most expensive ideas. A $200,000 YouTube game earns the confidence to spend $10 million on the same concept.
Reps matter more than budget. Camera holes, hallway shots and set angles were field-tested dozens of times before anyone built a city for television.
06Thumbnail shoot
Let stand-ins do the hours so the on-camera person does the minutes. The talent's time is the scarcest resource on any set.
Record the layout, not just the result. A floor grid that stores where everything stood turns a one-off shoot into a reusable template.
07100 days in jail
Pre-plan every check-in and bit so a 100-day video costs the host 15 minutes per visit instead of a day.
Infrastructure built for one project becomes the standard for the next; the custom prison control room is the model for all ten Beast Games sets.
08Army of story producers
Log the moments while they happen. Story producers tag every notable thing from episode one because the eventual winner is unknown.
Tag by category so you can search your own footage; a system that can pull everything funny in one query pays off in the edit.
09Giving away a $2M private jet
Design the final choice so it tests the premise: half a million dollars to stay versus going home to your family is the whole video in one decision.
Show up on set often. Sixty visits to a 100-day shoot is what makes the payoff feel earned to the crew and the audience.
10Man vs animal: world's highest jumper
Hold the creative standard even when the schedule is slipping; two hours behind with a tiger that will not jump is when the rule gets tested.
Keep a bank of proven moments. The $10,000 to $50,000 elimination bribe ran on YouTube first and was promoted to the show when it hit.
11Managing Jimmy's schedule
Parallelize the setups, not the person. Separate teams prepping separate shoots is how one host films many videos a week instead of one.
Protect a few non-negotiables in the day, like the voiceover and the workout, and schedule everything else around them.
12$30,000 drones
Expensive tools earn their cost by going where people cannot, which is why $30,000 drones fly in front of cannons.
Invest in specialists for the shots that define the look; a drone racing champion is the difference between coverage and spectacle.
13$5M+ of cameras and gear
Cover every angle so nothing has to be scripted; the gear budget exists to keep the show truly unscripted.
Track what you own. Thousands of serialized items only stay useful if someone knows where each one is.
14Getting buried alive
Rehearse the fear before the stakes are real. Hours in a coffin in a garage found out whether a panic attack was coming before cameras rolled.
Camera placement inside confined spaces came from the host's own seven-day burial; firsthand experience designs better coverage.
15Videographer to co-host pipeline
Grow talent from the crew. Holding the camera until everyone likes you is a real path from operator to co-host.
The best support role is predictive: a main camera operator has to know what the host wants before he asks.
1645+ collabs
Stage collaborators around the set before the break so the host can run nine collabs in one night without losing production time.
Treat a massive set as a free backdrop for social; the marketing shoot rides on the production budget instead of adding to it.
17Doing it bigger for TV
If an industry does not collaborate, go straight to the person who can say yes; the Survivor deal started with a direct ask.
Pick partners whose format already overlaps yours. Islands, tribes and brains versus brawn made the crossover feel native to both shows.
18Two giants, one moment: Survivor x Beast Games
Conform to the host's style when you are the guest. Following Jeff's lead got more out of a closed set than imposing the YouTube approach.
Big deals can start in small conversations; a plane seat next to the right person and one text message opened a 50-season franchise.
19The $50,000 bribe
Know what your format is really testing. Beast Games asks what you would do for money, Survivor asks who you are with nothing, so prize size is not the contest.
A guaranteed smaller prize beats a probable bigger one for most people, which is the entire premise of the bribe mechanic.
20When will you be done?
There is no age limit on the work; a host still running his show in his sixties is the counterexample to every retire-by-30 assumption.
Borrow storytelling from the people who have done it longest; season two aims to make viewers know the contestants, not just the stunts.
21Changing the industry
Make not saying no the rule of a collaboration and let the result open the industry's eyes instead of arguing for it.
A set is not finished until the social content is shot on it.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
Beast Games
MrBeast's competition show on Amazon Prime Video in which 1,000 contestants compete for multi-million-dollar prizes across giant purpose-built sets. Season two is being filmed during this documentary.
Main channel
The primary MrBeast YouTube channel, as opposed to the TV show, side channels or vertical social accounts. Main channel videos are still filmed in parallel with Beast Games.
Story producer
A crew member in unscripted television who watches and listens to contestants in real time, logs notable moments, and tracks each person's narrative so editors can build an arc later.
Control room
A room or truck where producers monitor every camera and microphone on a set simultaneously, switch between feeds, and take timestamped notes while filming happens.
Stand-in
A person who takes the on-camera talent's place while lighting, camera angles and blocking are set up, so the talent only arrives once everything is ready.
Thumbnail grid
A marked grid on the studio floor that records where people, lights and the camera stood for a thumbnail photo, so the exact layout can be recreated for a similar concept.
FPV drone
A first-person-view racing drone flown by a pilot wearing video goggles, used for fast, close, cinematic shots that a conventional camera drone cannot get.
Confessional
A direct-to-camera interview with a contestant, often filmed in isolation, that lets them narrate their own feelings and strategy for the edit.
One sheet
A single-page running profile of a contestant that collects their best moments, quirks and storylines so producers can see at a glance whether they have a full arc.
Survivor
The long-running CBS competition show hosted by Jeff Probst since 2000, in which contestants live on an island with minimal supplies and vote each other out.
“I literally told my mom I'd rather be homeless than do anything else.”
One line, zero setup, carries the whole origin story.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
02:31
“She took $100,000 and hid it from me in a different account in my name, so that way at least if Jimmy goes bankrupt he has a hundred grand and he's not homeless.”
A specific, surprising detail about a parent's fear that reframes the mortgage-payoff video.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
03:52
“My two janitors, one is now my lead director that writes everything, and the other is one of my co-hosts. So I did a good job at hiring janitors back in the day.”
Punchline structure with a real lesson about hiring from your circle.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
04:17
“Good times. By good times, I mean horrible times. Yeah, it was so cringe. I hated it.”
Self-deprecating and relatable to anyone who has posted into silence.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
07:20
“I can do a game for $200,000 in one of my YouTube videos. And if it goes well and people really like it, then now I can feel more confident when I spend sometimes $10 million building a set on Beast Games.”
The thesis of the whole film in two sentences with two hard numbers.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
08:39
“You don't just go from never building anything to building massive cities like we do on Beast Games. We got that confidence because we were able to do it on YouTube first.”
Clean closing line to the test-lab argument.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
00:46
“It was a miracle if a day was less than 15 hours for me. My schedule is literally planned down to a minute.”
Pays off the title directly.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
16:18
“For me, creative is the most important thing in the world, so we won't compromise on creative. We'll wait here until we get the best shot that we can get.”
A standard delivered while two hours behind schedule with a tiger that will not jump.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
25:54
“That's our pipeline to talent: you just hold the camera until everyone kind of likes you.”
Short, funny, and an actual hiring philosophy.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
26:20
“I just know what I'm doing in the next 24 hours, and it's eating shit and filming.”
Blunt answer to the family-and-20-years question; the honest version of hustle culture.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
36:45
“Beast Games is about what would you do for money. Survivor is who are you when stripped of everything.”
Jeff Probst defining two franchises in one sentence each.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
37:41
“Jeff's in his 60s now, he's still going. Why do I have to stop before I turn 30?”
“A set is not complete until they shoot social media content.”
A one-line production rule that applies at any budget.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
The Script
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
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There were tons of moments when I was younger where I would cry, where everyone tells me it's not realistic. At the end of the day, I just loved it. I loved making videos, I loved entertaining people.
All four or five that watched it back then. We're 99 ,000 subscribers off of 400 million. We're going to see if the highest jumper in the world can jump higher than a tiger.
World record! Can he do it?
You're levity! My schedule is literally playing down to a minute. I gotta get there, go, and do the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.
We're on set of one of Jimmy's most expensive videos. He's giving away this private jet that's worth over $2 million. If he goes another 100 days, I'll give him half a million dollars.
No. Are you doing another 100 days, or do you want to go hang out with your family? It was a miracle if a day was less than 15 hours.
Jimmy is already sprinting to his next video.
We're in a thumbnail shoot. They're spending hours getting everything set up. How much money do you think all the gear here is worth?
It's definitely north of five million. How many cameras have you used on a shoot? We were at about 350 individual cameras.
Beast King, welcome to Survivor. Welcome to Fiji. Jeff's been doing Survivor as long as I've been alive.
They've taken this genre and just... Steroided. He needs, like, finally a break.
His eyes have been shut for, like, 30 seconds. He's, like, taking a nap.
Do you ever think you'd die when you were doing your YouTube videos? There's 20 ,000 pounds of dirt on me, and if the coffin broke, I was dead.
We're going to hit 400 million soon, John. We're 99 ,000 subscribers off of 400 million. Did you already write a tweet?
Yeah, tell me what you think of that. A decade ago before I blew up, everyone in my life told me I was too obsessed. I literally told my mom I'd rather be homeless than do anything else.
When I first said I wanted to be a YouTuber, you know, we'd make $20 ,000 in a month. And the next month, I'd be like, well, we're going to spend $20 ,000 on videos. My mom, she would cry.
We had so many conversations where she would literally bawl her eyes out crying. I didn't realize it at the time, but my mom lost everything in 2008 because they were over -leveraged. The worst financial crisis in modern times.
Thralling home prices rising uninfluenced. This was a very bad day. It's official, we are in a recession.
Like her PTSD kicking in and she didn't want me to go bankrupt. Those thoughts never even once crossed her mind. Like, why would I set money aside to do like other YouTube videos?
And she's like, no, so you don't go bankrupt like I did. Even to the point where one time she actually... took $100 ,000 and hid it from me in a different account in my name.
She didn't steal the money because she was like, that way, at least if Jimmy goes bankrupt, he has a hundred grand and he's not like homeless. Don't you owe a lot of money in your house? Yes.
So I wanted to give you a check to help you pay for it. No, I can't. I can't take it.
I swear I cannot take it. So you use me for views and I get to pay off my mortgage? I think it works out pretty well.
What an entrepreneur.
She was just like, I'm going to stop. like crying and doubting you and like if you want to reinvest and go hard go for it i met jimmy when i think we were both about eight years old who is tyler conklin we played baseball together in little league he probably told you that he hit a home run off me uh okay well never mind delete that footage and little league I'm kidding.
Put that in whoever's editing. But put in the part where I told you to delete it because it'll be funny. But yeah, at 11, we played Little League.
Then he ended up coming to my school. As I started doing videos, I started doing like these videos where we'd copy Dude Perfect. And eventually, as I started scaling up, I didn't know how to hire.
So what did I do? I called all my friends from high school and I'm like, yo, you want to help me make videos? And Tyler's one of the people I called.
And he started off as like kind of a janitor cleaning for like... whatever, $8 an hour when I first started, him and Chandler, which is funny. My two janitors, one is now my lead director that writes everything, and the other is one of my co -hosts, Chandler.
So I did a good job at hiring janitors back in that day. There were people in my grade that would put on his YouTube videos, and they would laugh at him and be like, look at this awkward dude filming something, because kids are kind of mean. And no one would sit next to him.
He would go play catch, and no one would want to play catch with him. He was very socially awkward. It's hard to remember, but being a YouTuber was weird back then.
Good times. By good times, I mean horrible times. Yeah, it was so cringe.
I hate it. I just felt like an outcast. There were tons of moments when I was younger where I would cry.
But I even had a video where I was like, I think I should probably quit YouTube. Everyone tells me it's not realistic. No one understands.
But at the end of the day, I just loved it. And I loved making videos. I loved entertaining people.
All. four or five that watched it back then. About $10 ,000.
Every one of these 456 people survives the longest wins 456 grand. I recreated Willy Wonka's chocolate factory in real life. We just hit 100 million subscribers.
It's $1 million! And now I literally right now have to go give away $5 million. I'll see you there.
And competing for this money are 100 of the strongest people on the planet versus 100 of the smartest people on Earth. When Beast Games first started, the thought of doing something on television was cool.
Like in season one, we are about to play Captain Pratt. If you walked away a millionaire, it would change your life dramatically. I was like, I want to see that through.
Let's do that. This is the most important day of our entire season. This is the make or break as to whether somebody watches our whole show or leaves after episode three.
Turn on the lights! We're about to play Captain Bride. People love what we do on YouTube, so we want to do it bigger.
We want to do it different because it's six hours of content, not a normal 30 -minute video. But there are still some intrinsic things about our YouTube videos people love. Here we go.
Start the money counter. Let's see if any of them take a bribe. Our goal was to stick to our roots, and our roots is virality, doing the biggest and best.
Just say no to bribes. You got this, Hannah. That's a lot of money.
Speeding up. Here we go. Your word, your heart is not for sale!
He took it.
Oh my gosh. Everyone's coming down from the tower and that has to be one of the most awkward rides down because JT is there and screwed over his team, took the $1 million bribe. Beast Games doesn't compare to any traditional kind of TV shows, and we built it from the ground up.
A record -breaking number of a thousand players is currently stampeding this arena. Season one was something new for everyone. The first conversation was Jimmy called me and he said, I want to film a show with a lot of people and a lot of money.
Maybe it's like 10 episodes and each episode is super different, but... He was referring to it being on a YouTube video. And then it turned into a TV show.
And shout out to Mike Kruse. He had a lot of ins with television people. Me and Mike flew to LA and started pitching.
And that was when it was scary. Because one day, I'm going to wake up, I'm going to walk on a set that's a television set. Very different than YouTube.
I'm going to have to find a way to get this done. And the beauty for us with Beast Games is we have a YouTube channel. And so I can do a game for $200 ,000 in one of my YouTube videos.
And if it goes well and people really like it, then now I can feel more confident when I spend, you know, sometimes $10 million building a set on Beast Games that the viewers will like it. This is level four. An example of this would be we had this video where we built an obstacle course over water with spinny things and bouncy balls.
And one of my friends named Mac had to go through it to win $800 ,000. You built this in two weeks. One person competed on it, and then you're going to tear it down.
Absolutely. And in traditional TV, they'll run like 20 seasons on one set. Not us.
That would be boring. Who wants to watch the same thing over and over again? Not me.
I want to see a unique video every week. And people really, really loved it. The retention was really good by YouTube standards.
So on episode three of Beast Games season two, We brought back an obstacle course, made it bigger. It's also over water, this obstacle course.
And instead of one contestant, we had dozens of contestants, did tons of different games. The lighting, the coverage, everything was just way cooler. We had a way more expensive set.
Back in the day, we recreated Squid Games. And ever since then, our sets have been getting bigger and bigger on YouTube. So we got a lot of reps under our belts of like, how do you structure the sets in a way where they feel realistic?
You know, like the hallway they walk into, the shot selection, like even little things like cutting little holes for the cameras to shoot through. What height? What angles do you want?
All these things we've field tested so many dozens of times on our YouTube channel that now when we do the same thing but way bigger on Beast Games, it's just not as scary because we've done it so much. You don't just go from never building anything to building massive cities like we do on Beast Games. And we got that confidence because we were able to do it on YouTube first.
How do you manage your time between YouTube and Beast Games? It was a miracle if a day was less than 15 hours for me. My schedule is literally planned down to a minute.
Everything has to be perfect because I just don't have much time. I've got to get there and go, and then I've got to go do the next thing. and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.
For example, our thumbnails, like our grid system that we lay out on the floor, we have stand -ins practice the photos before me. So in a couple of weeks, we have obstacle video coming out. This is one of our concepts for it.
We're shooting with Jimmy's body doubles, doing our best we can to replicate the concept. My face gets edited out anyways, but I try to get into it like I'm actually falling. I think that kind of helps with the product.
I'm here 9 to 5 Monday through Friday as of right now. Taking thumbnail photos. Yeah.
Yeah. Nine to five. Yeah.
You ready? Yep. All right.
Rolling. We're right now in a thumbnail shoot. They're spending hours getting everything set up so that when Jimmy comes in, he's just ready to go.
And so I can just go boom, boom, boom, boom, take the photos and get out because I can't waste time. Like, five minutes. I can't waste it.
Right now, they're setting up and telling everyone where to stand on the grid. It is so precise. How important is the grid?
Right now, we need all of our production assistants who aren't as familiar with the gear to be able to hit their spot right when they, you know, clearly know exactly where they're going. It lets us keep track of where all the lights are, where all the people are, where the camera is, and then we can save all of that info.
And if we ever have anything that's like super similar concept, then we can just reset back to what we had before like that. So it's really helped our efficiency in terms of like shooting with Jimmy. It's a pretty goofy little job we have here.
As much as I wish I wrapped everything before these games, there were just so many main channel videos I still had to do.
So this is day 100 of the survive 100 days in a prison. Yeah. So you learned under Tyler.
Now you're the creative director. What do you think is the biggest thing you take on to free up Jimmy's time? And we filmed some of these check -ins in 15 minutes.
Yeah. All the bits are planned out and made sure they're ready to keep Jimmy's time as short as possible. When he rolls up, he's able to just flow, flow, flow, show up, do it, get out.
The guy with the tattoos, he spent three years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme. Obviously, I'm not going to have a murderer. And he wants to use the money, if he wins, to pay back restitution to his victims.
So it's a good story. So how many cameras are in this prison set? Oh, there's about 28.
28. and they're rolling 24 -7. That's correct.
Another example of us testing things on YouTube to bring over to Beast Games would just be our control rooms. Look at all the stuff behind me. It did not exist as of a few days ago.
They've literally set up a custom control room. It is a huge undertaking. We also have this for every set in Beast Games.
We have like 10 of these. And all these sets have their own story producers that are taking notes. All right, you can see the control room is in a totally different place than usual.
It's in this truck. In the control room, there's an army of story producers. They all have headsets on.
They're listening to a hundred different people's mics. Are you listening to every single microphone on set? We have the capability to switch between them and kind of check on all the different players and also listening to Jimmy and his boys.
What do you do for a living, just out of curiosity? Stay at home, Dad. I play with blocks every day.
So all of these are tags that you can sort by these different tags. So if I just want to see everything that we thought was funny, I could search by funny. As the episode goes on, we are going to add notes of things that stood out to us on camera that we heard them say, we saw them do.
Like 69, he was doing this like crazy dance and I have a note of that and I want to add that into his one sheet. You really don't know who's gonna end up in the finale and we want to know that they have a full strong story from the very first episode.
So we're filming just so much content at the same time it's unfathomable. we're on set of one of jimmy's most expensive videos he's giving away this private jet that's worth over two million dollars to a guy that's been living sleeping and traveling on it for the past 99 days so this control room is here for over a hundred days filming him while we're shooting beast games today's day 100 so he's made it and jimmy's about to come in and gift it to him i think it's gonna get crazy we're moments away from the video ending and it's time for one final decision terry Bring them out.
Here's the thing. Your family has no idea about the second offer. If he goes another 100 days, I'll give him half a million dollars.
No. No? No.
You want your husband back? Yeah. When you sign this line, this private jet will be in your name.
This is a $2 .5 million signature.
Okay? It's officially yours, and my final question is, are you doing another 100 days, or do you want to go hang out with your family? I think I'm gonna choose that option right now.
Go say hi to him!
Oh, that's so adorable. I don't know if I'm getting emotional because I'm also a dad, and being part of this documentary, I'm away from my daughter for about 30 days to film this. Seeing his daughter, his wife, all his friends and family here, it's emotional.
Does this feeling ever get old or feel normal? This is fresh. This is crazy.
Look, it's the look on his face when he sees his family. It's always the best. Yeah.
How many times do you guys visit the set in these 100 -day videos typically? Like 60 times. Yeah.
At least. I've spent so much time with this guy. I feel like we're friends now.
Look at this guy. Look how strong he is. All right, that's a wrap on the private jet video.
Jimmy is already sprinting to his next one. We also filmed this whole video where we had Cheetah versus the world's fastest car and all these other stunts going on. So we went to South Africa, raced the Formula E car.
It's the fastest accelerating car in the world versus the Cheetah. And we filmed tug of war with the world's strongest man versus a lion. We had an elephant that came in and painted.
What are you filming today? All right, we're going to see if the highest jumper in the world can jump higher than a tiger. Oh, wow.
She's right behind you. Oh. She tried to touch you.
This is going to be lit. You feel like YouTube videos like this are testing grounds for beast games? 100%.
If you watch our Ages 1 to 100 Decide video, we had Jimmy go up and give $10 ,000 for anyone who's willing to eliminate their rogue. We're now at $50 ,000. I'm sorry.
Are you serious? That hit, we ran it for the show, one of the best moments of season one. 900!
Oh, my God! Oh, my God. Wow.
We got it back in season two. He took it. Oh!
You have an incubator for content ideas that most big shows do not have. Yeah, we try it and see how it feels, and if it feels right, we do it, you know? To get the tiger excited, that chicken leg right there is gonna bounce up and down.
Oh, she wants it. How hard is it to shoot with live animals? You can't really tell a tiger to jump.
We have to use its bait. But, like, if it decides it's not hungry enough to jump, then it just doesn't jump. Yeah.
All right, here comes the jump. We got to reload. She got it.
This is the brutal part of working with animals. There's one point where we're sitting here calling him over and over and over as he's not answering in hopes that he finally picks it up and shows up on set because we were filming in, like, 15 minutes. Yo, it's on that.
We got a shot of getting Jimmy here now for a rehearsal. He had festivals, meetings. He had to film with the main channel.
He had to film vertical content. He's filming nonstop. We're just trying to get the tiger shot.
The tiger keeps catching the meat, and we're trying to get a good jump. When do you need me there? Those are a little tricky, because on one hand, I totally understand, and on the other hand, we got a show to film.
I thought there was a world he didn't show up to his own shoot, and I got nervous. So we're like two hours behind. We're two hours behind.
For me, creative is the most important thing in the world, so we won't compromise on creative. We'll wait here until we get the best shot that we can get. We're struggling to get her to jump, so I'm going to try doing the pulley myself.
You might have got it. Let's see. Is that the slow -mo?
Yeah. Oh, yeah, here it is in slow -mo.
That's way cooler than I thought. That's what I'm saying. These shots look sick.
And then we'll be able to play this side by side of you both going up. How do you manage Jimmy's schedule? There's what Jimmy wants and needs, and then there's also what every single other person in the company wants and needs.
I mean, I still have to do voiceover and workout before I leave. It's fascinating to see how content revolves around his schedule.
I mean, Jimmy used to do these seven -day videos, like seven days in a coffin, which meant he could only do one video per week. But now, Jimmy has teams that set up different shoots from YouTube to Beast Games, and he can film a ton more videos per week. So Jimmy can come into this segment, film it, and go out.
It looks like they're about to wrap, and you guys are going to take them too? Beast Games set next, and then we'll do that for about four or five hours, and then... 3 or 4 a .m., we'll do another man versus animal bit at a junkyard where we have a bunch of Navy SEALs hiding from dogs that are supposed to find the Navy SEALs.
This is his old world record. 12 feet, 3 inches. And if he touches it, he's going to set a new one.
This does not seem humanly possible. World record. Can he do it?
Oh, my God.
like i can go higher oh my gosh this guy you just jumped higher than any human on the planet and the first thing he says is i could go higher what a freaking maniac you're levitating you literally look like a superhero there that is insane your knee is the same height as my head congratulations you have officially beaten your previous world record with a new world record and I'm sure you'll probably need it again.
Let's go to the next challenge. If there's one thing I've learned from Jimmy during our 45 -day shoot together is that he obsesses over every single detail, and that includes his domain name, mrbeast .com. store and he's not alone from speed .store to dude perfect .store to our own created .store so many creators trust .store domains who is today's sponsor so if you're a creator selling online or even planning to don't go with the lengthy .com link that nobody could type or remember go with .store so it's easy to remember and people can trust that it's your official store plus a website with a .store domain drives 2x higher visibility because the word store is in the link so if you're a creator selling merch or anything digital or use my link below to get a special deal to get your Dot Store domain for only $1 for the first year before somebody else grabs it.
Thanks again to our friends at Dot Store Domain for sponsoring this video, and now back to it. I'm doing 12, 15, sometimes, I mean, some of those days are 18, 20 -hour days on Beast Games, and then I'm turning around and having to go shoot main channel content just to go back to the Beast Games grind. I mean, that was a lot, man.
All right, we'll see you on set. The limo is outside right now. The jet is ready.
We were about to go to the island. Raise the wall! Eyes are on him the whole time.
Eyes are on me. So I'm going to back up because I don't want to get hit by the cannon. Thumbs up if everybody understands that.
Jimmy's going to say somewhere in the city is 10 cannonballs. I hit 10 cannonballs all around the city. The first 10 people to find a cannonball, shoot this cannon, goes to the island.
We're going to decide who's competing for a $1 .8 million island right here. Right now. Go!
All right, we got our first finder. Johnny, try to get her shooting it ASAP so they hear it. She's about to fire the first cannon.
Our drone team and the drone footage we have, at least for me, is one of the favorite parts. of the show it's the coolest looking stuff on television what shot are you trying to get right now um one of them is going to be hovering right in front of the cannons yeah master y and hopefully the cannonballs go like right under and then we got fpv going all in okay so we got somebody coming up with the cannonball now so i'm trying to give a little low tracking shot as he heads out all up there is a drone racing league world champion what i'm going to try to do is fly past the cannon as it fires That was sick.
Thank you. You guys have been flying these drones all show long. How much do these things cost?
You can buy kind of what you see here for about 18 grand. Wow. But by the time you get everything you need to actually do an entire show's worth of production, you're probably looking at more like 25 -ish per drone.
Round up, 30. 30. 30 all day.
They're not cheap. And for something that is not cheap, we put them in some precarious places. Like what?
Over cannons. In front of cannonballs. You're the second person going to the island whenever you're ready.
All right, taking off the matic. He's going to shoot it. That was crazy.
There are six left, and we've been looking for a hot minute. The contestants are racing around the city. We got our headphones on just to block the noise from the explosions of the cannon because it is loud.
They got the safety measures in place. They got the pyrotechnics, the explosions, the lighting. It is unbelievable.
Heck yeah! Let's go! When the last cannonball runs over there, I need everyone to be like, yeah.
And then Jimmy's going to trigger the big bomb. I think we have one more person who just found a cannonball.
Go, go, go, go, go, go.
Cue the fireworks show. Here comes the biggest explosion yet.
Fireworks are over and now the fire department is here on site, making sure all the flames, all the smoke, everything is safe. So this is not an occurrence with our gear. Take a bullet hole.
Oh, I can see the lens, dude. Wow. This is where we keep all our camera bodies and everything.
90 % of what we have right now is that old chute. Oh my God, look at all these GoPros. How much money do you think all the gear here is worth?
If I had to put a number on it, it's definitely north of $5 million. I mean, we have, you know, thousands and thousands of individual serialized items that we keep track of. This is our new workhorse, the XT26.
It's a 2 ,600 watt fixture. And this is for the outdoor shoots. You look like a Ghostbuster.
Exactly, yeah. Things crazy. These FPV drones.
These are flying cars? Oh, yeah. What the hell?
This is like my childhood and adulthood merch. Oh, for sure. Look at this.
Look at the GoPro on the front. The drone propellers. So this thing will like drive into a shot and then fly.
Mm -hmm. They want to have every angle covered so that they can pull from any moment. So it's truly unscripted.
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've been geeking out, like, all day, but this is something else. We try to take a lot of the core foundation of MrBeast, giving away money, giving away private islands, and a lot of the games, challenges, burying alive.
Weirdly, I've done that three times now. Guards! Bury them alive!
Nine contestants are being buried alive. Oh, my God! How are you thinking about this from a filming perspective?
It's all about their confessionals to the camera when they're in there. Obviously, we have one just straight down. I am really out here getting buried right now.
Am I filling this up quick? And we've got two on either side, so it's like they're laying on one side or the other. And then these coffins are so large, you're essentially able to sit up within the coffin.
So we put one at their feet. Oh, my God. That's what we've learned, especially after seeing Jimmy in one for seven days.
It's like camera placement within this confined space. sound crazy, but if you're going to bury somebody alive, you want the Beast team to do it. Can I bury myself in the coffin?
You can. Really? Absolutely.
Whoa. It's been nice knowing you. Whoa!
Scary, right? All right, that's a wrap, everybody.
That is terrifying. Like, how did you prepare for this when you did this for your YouTube videos? Truthfully, the first time I plowed a coffin, I put it in my garage.
It was my old house. And I would just lay in it for a few hours every night just to adjust to being in it, because I wanted to know if I was going to have a panic attack before we started the video. There's 20 ,000 pounds of dirt on me, and if the coffin broke, I was dead.
Bro, my back was hurting. You can get blood clots, but people found it enjoyable. Look at the views on it.
Would you ever bury yourself alive for more than seven days? At one point, we were thinking about doing a month, but I said, I got so much stuff going on now, I'm good. John hits the hardest questions as, like, my...
awareness and, like, brain cells are plummeting, John's like, all right, time to dig deep. Your childhood, your mother, what was that relationship like? That's his job.
That's why I told him to hang around. Yeah, that's what no one else will. Most people would be too afraid.
What does it take to be Jimmy's main cam op? You have to be able to predict what he wants before he wants it. Viggo.
He just wants to be talent, doesn't want to do it. Well, he dares. Do you want to be in front of the camera?
Yeah, he does. He's fiending to throw the camera down. Wow, so you're going to have Darius in the main channel YouTube video in front of the camera.
There's a lot of folks that Beast have worn men in different hands. I mean, Carl was behind the camera. Like, Tariq, like, has...
Exactly. That's our pipeline to talent is you just hold the camera until everyone kind of likes you. You're already thinking about how to, like, rotate more than your co -host.
Yeah, because it's not like I don't like these guys. It's just so, you know, like, right after we finish this, it's 30 days of nonstop main channel filming. Like, these guys are...
gonna be dying, you know what I mean? Yeah. Do you think you'll continue, like, on that pace?
Yeah, because it's my company, but it's different, you know? Even when you have a family and kids? Oh, like, 20 years?
I don't know. I just know what I'm doing in the next 24 hours, and it's eating shit and filming. This is what I'm talking about.
See how Carl's just yelling random things? I'm a man in a circle. I'm looking like Steve Urkel.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
So am I. We are the guys. John, who looks more like Steve or Cole?
I'm about to get canceled. Maybe just by a little. I did 24 hours in a desert, 24 hours in a jungle, 24 hours underwater.
I have 24 hours of solitary confinement. Buried Alive was just a natural evolution, you know? Did you ever think you'd die when you were doing your YouTube videos?
No, because we have safety teams and stuff, and I have faith. I mean, that's why we have Johnny. If there was a catastrophic emergency up here, they'd be safer down there.
John, it's a stunt double here. This is our safety. Yeah, you do it.
We'll push you in. This guy was Zac Efron's stunt double. The things that you did during your breaks where you invited other creators on.
It was a lot. That's what makes it so hard because I wasn't just doing Beast Games, I was also doing the marketing for Beast Games and I was doing social posts and stuff for after the show drops. And so those were, man, those were jam -packed days.
It was a lot of creators we filmed with and I'm so grateful for them. John, what's up, baby?
You're thinking my life. I love this guy. I love this guy, man.
I love this guy. When you got this shit out here, you know you made it, dude. I said get that out of my shot.
That's Jon's foot mic. That's not me. Bro, you can't stand on there when you're 6 '5".
You're making me look like I'm Kiwon, bro. Come on.
Kiwon, stand on there, man. They're great equalizers. There we go, yeah.
This is my two worlds colliding right here. I wouldn't be here without you. Wait, what's the most viewed video on Jon's channel, though?
Wait, I haven't beat him yet? I think Danny has 3 .5 and Jimmy has... Number one most viewed videos on his channel is me.
Let's get it. I'm in second. Bro, you have 400 million subscribers.
I'll probably gain 8 million in the next... This is MrBeast, the biggest YouTuber in the world. So behind me, Jimmy is doing another collab with a creator.
It's his ninth one tonight, as he kind of speed runs through each of these creator collabs. Is that Brent Rivera? Yeah.
And it's been orchestrated by Sinan, the head of marketing for Beast Games, to help promote the show. How many TikToks would you say you've shot so far throughout the show? 47, 48.
Wow. And how hard is it to get, like, time with Jimmy? You said that before I finished.
Very hard. We put creators in different areas of the set during Jimmy's break, so you can do the collabs back to back to back without losing any time. Eric came down, Graham Stephan, Matthew Beam in his secret room, Hayley Bailey.
Because we're building such large, massive sets in Beast Games, it's just a perfect breeding ground to film social content. Lethal Shooter taught me everything he knows. Can you guess which shot went in?
Before we shoot with Jimmy, we do it with a stand -in to make sure that the camera angles, the sound, and the lights are perfect so we can get it in one take without wasting his time. Can you guess who makes this shot? Three, two, one.
Those 40 collabs would not have been possible without our head of marketing, Sanan. He crushed it. We're coming up with better ideas for Danny's channel.
We're coming up with bangers. Jimmy's like, finally a break.
His eyes have been shut for, like, 30 seconds. He's, like, taking a nap. You have an extremely busy schedule, so...
Oh, yeah, I'm gonna go back to killing bee scams. I won't forget to post the Instagram story. Go check it out!
YouTubers collaborate. That's a normal thing. And the idea that television doesn't do it, it just doesn't make sense to me.
There's a lot of things that get in the way with that, a lot of networks and a lot of problems, but there's no reason not to figure it out, and so we did. We went straight to the source. We went to Jeff.
Getting excited. I get to meet the players. See Jimmy.
Russ, go ahead and roll. Rolling. Action, Jeff.
Oh, that's sick. Welcome. Come join me.
Jeff Brooks? Yes, it is. For Survivor specifically, there's 100 ,000 reasons why we should collaborate with them.
We give away islands. I bought this enormous private island and I'm giving it to one of you. There's a whole island video where we do votes like tribal.
Even strength and smarts. Versus smart. Came from brains and brawn.
We're doing three tribes this year. Beauty, brains, and brawn. Everyone in our company has seen some form of Survivor episodes.
You watch Survivor every week. I know. Literally, Jeff Probst is the godfather of challenge television.
Jimmy, is it wild that Jeff's first season of Survivor was when he was 27 years old? You're 27 years old right now? Really?
Yeah. Dang. Jeff's been doing Survivor as long as I've been alive.
Every second I've grieved air is the second he's spent making this show. What's up? You're finally here.
How's it going? Nice to finally meet you. Thanks for coming out here.
Yeah, thank you. Beast Games, welcome to Survivor. Welcome to Fiji.
Hey, everybody. We got Beast Games team here. How's it going?
Nice to meet you all. Survivor has really perfected storytelling. It's literally what started all of this, right?
I mean, we kind of have Survivor to thank for that. You have Jeff in Survivor, like one of the greatest TV franchises ever. And now you have Jimmy in Beast Games in the biggest, probably most watched competition show ever.
And it was like you and Kareem met magic for the first time. But it was the two giants of their respective worlds. like coming together in that moment.
We've revamped it all into your color scheme with your logos and your banners. We think it works pretty well, but the idea is we run it, and then you and your team tweak it as you want. Hey, Carl, hop up there.
I don't even know where to go from here. To me, this is the highest point we'll ever see, I think. Oh, yeah, dude.
I'm here for life.
For the first phase, you go through here. You got coconuts. You got to stand on this platform, take one coconut at a time.
We brought 10 people, we left our entire crew, and we basically asked them, can we use your whole crew? As amazing as our crew is at filming Beast Games, our crew wouldn't film Survivor the way Survivor's crew would. That was their off day.
They worked six days a week. That off day, they used for us. just to help our show.
I'm letting Jeff take over this episode. I'm following his lead. It'll be fun.
I don't know how they do it on Beast Games. On Survivor, we move quickly. We've never done anything like this.
We're super insulated. You know, you could say protective of our show. We really don't typically even have people visiting.
But the only people we would have here would be Beast Games. I don't want to conform Jeff to our style. I want to conform myself to his style.
I mean, it's 50 seasons. Clearly, people like it. When we went to Survivor Island, that's something that Sean kind of put into effect.
Jeff, can I show you this picture that Sean Klitzner shared of your first meeting together? Yeah, it's at our guest house. Do you remember how that came together and what role Lori played in that?
How did that all come about? We're here because of her. I had an opportunity to go visit Fiji.
We just happened to be seated next to each other on the plane ride to Fiji and immediately hit it off and got to talking. I literally asked Lori Delacalle on the airplane over to Fiji, who's Jeff's right hand. you know, with all things PR.
And I just said, hey, we should do something together. And she goes, huh? She goes, what does that look like?
I was like, well, what if we did something as a collab? I texted Jeff right from the plane. You know, we got to talk as soon as I land.
She looked up. She goes, I just texted Jeff. I was like, like Jeff Probst?
Then all of a sudden, it goes ding. And she looks down. She goes, he's really into it.
We just kept talking. The lawyer's like, we should do something with them. They are cool.
They're like us. We meet with Jeff. We spend about two hours with him, and I took out my camera, and I took a picture, and he goes, let's change television.
Okay, we officially have our two -team captain. I'm dreaming. This is crazy.
We're all rolling. All right, over to Jeff. Yo!
All right, they're off. First out of the gate. That's how you do it on Survivor.
Mink is falling incredibly behind. Is this it? It was interesting to see the Survivor team that has a formula down to a science of how they produce TV to have the circus come into town.
As similar as Jeff and Jimmy are in their content, they're totally different in their approach. It's fun to watch Jimmy sort of go wherever he wants. He doesn't care that his hat covers his face.
He didn't care he was back to camera. I literally was looking at Jimmy going, this guy's the king. Clearly a genius.
That's exactly what he's doing. There's kids on the set. He's like, oh, come in, come in.
I'll say hi to the kids. And, you know, Jeff Probst took a moment and was like, is this what you do on your show? Like, people can come and go?
He's like, Jimmy's like, yeah. Like, this is what we do. They've taken this genre and just steroided it.
Everything's bigger. The bribes are not a hamburger.
Three, two. All right, ladders out. Remember, if your feet hit that sand, your chances of winning the island is over.
Tyler, this could get interesting quickly. Jimmy, he is jamming his face. Yeah, that does not look comfortable.
For leverage. Jeff is coming in with a little bit where he's giving away a burger, which is a big deal on Survivor. Ethan, this is a fresh burger made in our Survivor kitchen.
Ian? Ian said no. Give it to the losers so they feel a little better.
And then Jimmy's going to come in with his big twist. Carl! Bring it on in.
I'm curious, will any of you take my $50 ,000 bribe? 50G, baby. Stay out.
Bro, both of us have families. You're not going to beat us in tribal. Ethan, you're good.
Six, five. Ethan, don't do it. Take it, Ethan.
I'm going to take it. One, slide down. No, Ethan, Ethan.
Yeah, you're good. You're good if you slide down now. I'll allow it.
Wait, Ethan is really taking it. OK. Oh, wow.
Wait. Ian, you can sign out! Ian was about to give in, too!
Does seeing, like, bribes with that much money, or the fact that Jimmy has given over $24 million in one season, you've given over $50 million in over 50 seasons, does that make you think about the prize money you want to give away on Survivor moving forward? No. Because this is the fundamental difference of the two social experiments, in my opinion.
Beast Games is about what would you do for money. survivor is who are you when stripped of everything so our show the money is the carrot but the experience and the adventure of being tested with while you're living in nature with no food and no sleep and all that's what the show is about your experiment is very different you just saw it play out ethan was as jimmy just said seconds away from probably the island because he's saying jc get the votes you can't get the vote but the minute jimmy said this is guaranteed Ethan said, I'm taking the guarantee.
I thought that was that little moment. I'd say that's what Beast Games is all about right there. Even now, people say, when are you going to be done?
I don't know. You know, I love pointing to you as an example because I say the same thing. Like, I've been doing YouTube for 15 years and everyone's like, well, eventually you're going to get too old because I've been doing it since I was 12.
And I'm like... i mean jeff's in his 60s now he's still going like why do i why do i have to stop before i turn 30 what do you mean you know they're like so when you're 40 years old you'll be making youtube videos and i'm like Yeah, why not?
Your storytelling is up here and you lead knowing the characters, and I'd say season one we're down here, and in season two I'm trying to bring it up to here where you feel like you really know a lot of the contestants. That's cool. That's a nice compliment.
And you bring spectacle in a way that really blows up an idea, which is cool. The question is, who's going to be doing this longer, me or Jeff? I'll let you guys decide that.
I got another 20, 30 years in the tank, does he? Damn. See, now that's unfair.
Yeah, who's going to quit first? He's in his 60s. He's so old.
This is how I think Jimmy sees me. No, I see a little more bent over. Yeah, sorry.
That was a little too healthy. I'm just kidding. A set is not complete until they shoot social media content.
That's what we've learned from Jimmy throughout all of this. You know, they're about to film a few Instagram photos, a few TikToks and reels. And I wouldn't be surprised if after this, Survivor starts doing even more social posts.
Hey, here's your microphone. Thanks, Jebo. There you go.
And I wouldn't be surprised if after this, Survivor starts making even more social content because they got these amazing set pieces. My ball gets in the target before yours. Will you go on your YouTube channel and say, Survivor's the greatest show and everybody should watch it?
Yes, I will 100 % promote it, but you're not winning, so it is what it is. They literally went, hey, welcome to our family. Like, come on in.
Let's try something new. Let's do something. Let's not say no was our rule.
Let's just not say no. And what came out of it was... I don't want to say it could change the industry, but it should open the industry's eyes up to how collaboration should happen more in the industry.
It's what the next generation wants to see. You guys have no idea how epic this is going to be. People are going to love it.
And I am very grateful for you guys. There is so much that we have been able to learn throughout the experience of traditional television. But the one thing that we really, really have is that YouTube get -it -done -whatever -it -takes mentality.
And I think we've figured out... I think we've figured out what people want to watch on television.
This is my How to Succeed and Misrebuice production. I remember when this leaked. I've met so many people who have said their boss made them read this.
I'm just going to read from it. It is 11 .35 at night. Jimmy is filming a Lunch League commercial.
Let's do one more. This is where the expansion is being done. Here we solve crazy problems.
That's how you pull off the impossible. We have a phone. It says, ask for anything.
How do you produce something like that? The requests are coming in one by one by one. Send in the surf and turf.
The masseuse. Tattoo artists. Psychic.
Drivers all over the city. Private jets waiting on standby. I am getting slammed.
Could you connect me with Elon Musk? I DM'd Elon, and then the next day Elon replied.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The title promises a work-ethic flex, and the first ninety seconds deliver it as a montage: a schedule overlay that moves from a workout to getting buried alive, a $2 million jet, a tiger, a world record jump, and a nap that lasts thirty seconds. Then the film does something more useful than counting hours. It spends forty minutes showing the machinery that lets one person be on camera that much, and it keeps asking him when he plans to stop.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
07:05concept
YouTube as the test lab for TV
Run an idea as a $200,000 game on the main channel. If retention holds, the same idea gets a $10 million set on Beast Games. Obstacle courses, control rooms, bribes and buried-alive stunts all went through this filter before reaching television.
Steal forAny creator deciding which format deserves a bigger budget, a paid product or a longer runtime.
09:00concept
The stand-in rehearsal pipeline
Body doubles rehearse thumbnail poses nine to five, a floor grid records every position, and TikTok collabs are blocked with stand-ins first. The talent arrives, shoots in minutes, and leaves. The same idea protects his time on the prison check-ins, which are pre-planned to take 15 minutes.
Steal forAny shoot where the on-camera person's time is the scarce resource.
11:26concept
Story producer tagging system
A control room of story producers listens to every contestant mic, tags each moment by category such as funny, and builds a one sheet per person from episode one so whoever reaches the finale already has a full arc.
Steal forAny long-form project where you will not know the hero until the end.
25:54concept
Hold the camera until everyone likes you
On-camera talent is grown from crew, not hired. Two $8-an-hour janitors became the lead director and a co-host; camera operators Karl, Tareq and Darius moved in front of the lens. The main cam op's job description is to predict what Jimmy wants before he wants it.
Steal forBuilding a cast or a team from people who already know how the content works.
28:10list
Collab speed-run during breaks
Stage each creator in a different area of the set before the break
Rehearse camera, sound and lights with a stand-in so the real take is one and done
Run the collabs back to back, nine in one night, 47 TikToks over the shoot
Treat the expensive set as the backdrop for every vertical post
The head of marketing turns Jimmy's downtime into a promotional engine for the show without adding a single filming day.
Steal forPromoting any launch when the founder's camera time is limited.
36:45model
Two social experiments
Beast Games: what would you do for money
Survivor: who are you when stripped of everything
Jeff Probst's explanation of why Survivor does not need to raise its prize money to compete: the two shows test different things, and a guaranteed $50,000 beating a probable island proves the Beast Games premise in one moment.
Steal forDefining what your format is really about so you stop competing on someone else's axis.
39:02concept
Let's not say no
The operating rule for the Survivor crossover on both sides: Survivor opened a closed set, lent its crew on its day off, and reskinned a challenge; Beast Games followed Jeff's lead instead of imposing its style. Both teams shot social on the set before wrapping.
Steal forAny collaboration between two established brands with different cultures.
CTA Breakdown
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
18:21product
“Use my link below to get a special deal to get your .Store domain for only $1 for the first year before somebody else grabs it.”
Mid-roll sponsor read bridged from the subject's own detail obsession (mrbeast.store) into the product, with a QR code, promo code JON26 and URL burned on screen. Sits at the 18-minute mark right after the world-record jump payoff, then hands straight back to the story.
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Jon Youshaei sits down with Peter McKinnon and plays clips from his own archive back to him, tracing the exact decisions that took him from 55 cents of AdSense revenue to a multi-million-subscriber brand.
One creator claims Claude Opus 5.5 replaced the $1,500-a-month editor who used to make his Instagram Reels, and walks through the eight-step system that does it.
Sean Cannell breaks down the 12 biggest product updates from YouTube's Made on YouTube 2026 keynote, and what actually changes for creators versus what's just hype.
Jasmine Star explains why she retired the course-and-membership business that made her rich, and rebuilt it around a 90-day result, a four-step formula, and a coaching team that never gets on a live call.
A loan officer who didn't post his first video until 38 built two seven-figure businesses by mining the advice he'd already given away for free for years.
A screen-recorded walkthrough of Eden's new Store feature, which turns a course, PDF, or prompt into an AI-powered product and pays a recurring commission on top of every sale.
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