Jimmy Donaldson is known to millions as MrBeast. And by “millions,” we mean 480 million. That’s the number of subscribers to his YouTube channel alone, and that continues to grow.
Earlier this year, his reality competition show “Beast GamesMrBeast on That ‘Survivor’ Crossover, Collaborating with Starbucks, and Being Open to a ‘Beast Games’ Movie – ‘If Amazon’s Down, I’ve Got Some Crazy Ideas’” returned with its second season on Prime Video, reaching No. 1 in the U.S., just another milestone for the man who has wanted to create YouTube videos ever since he was a boy.
While a third season is in the works, his portfolio extends beyond creating videos and reality competition shows. Beast Industries, founded by Donaldson, is currently valued at $5 billion. And as he continues to produce YouTube videos, he remains open to that next collaboration — if it feels right.
With his eyes on the prize — an Emmy nomination in the reality competition race or host category — he details the process of coming back bigger and better for Season 2 of “Beast Games,” working with “Survivor” and what makes the perfect collaboration.
Season 1 of “Beast Games” hit 50 million viewers globally in its first 25 days. How did you approach Season 2?
With Season 1, we had nothing to go off of, and it takes a lot of effort to go from zero to one. With Season 2, we had a rough aesthetic and could focus on the granularity. We had less contestants, and we tried to figure out how to build the contestants up through the story.
This was also our second time building a city, and we were able to save some money in certain spots, so we could put that into other things we couldn’t afford in Season 1. I’m excited about Season 3, because we can keep building on top of the previous seasons and learn new things.
Living up to Season 1 is a big challenge!
I’ve been making videos since I was 11 years old. The last eight years, we’ve been doing big spectacles, and we’ve always made it bigger and better. We’ve always improved something. That’s what runs in my production company’s DNA. I don’t know if we have a method, but that’s just what we do. We are trained to look at and go, “How can we make it better?”
I loved the return of Jeffrey, Season 1’s winner. What was behind that decision to bring him back?
We brought 10 fan favorites from Season 1 back. I wanted people to get to know these contestants and focus on the character building, but that takes time. At the high level, here are the people you like; we’ll let them hang around. Maybe one of them wins, maybe not; you get to know all these new people.
Jeffrey did pretty well. For a moment, I thought he was going to win. What did you think?
At a certain point, I thought he was going to win again.
What gave Tyler the edge?
He was really good friends with a lot of people. A lot of people will form alliances in “Beast Games,” but the second money is offered to eliminate someone, their alliances instantly crumble. In his case, he, August, Jack and oSothers had a really strong alliance; they didn’t really screw each other over, at least not until the very end. If you have nine other people you can trust to have your back and not take a bribe, that goes such a long way.
This season, you also moved the show to Greenville, S.C. What was different about shooting in this environment?
It’s our hometown. I’ve been here for over a decade. We were able to create jobs for people who live in the city. At one point, we had more than 1,500 people on set doing catering, building the city. So, it was cool to be able to give that opportunity to people.
Episode 4 was a “Survivor” takeover. How long was that in the works?
Not as long as you would think — a couple of months.
One of our lead producers started talking to (“Survivor” exec producer and host) Jeff Probst and threw the idea out there, and he called me. It seemed too good to be true until we started filming it.
Cory Osborne/Prime
So many kids admire you, and they want to be you when they grow up. What does that mean to hear that?
If you were to ask 100 random kids in America what they want to be, the majority of them would answer either a YouTuber or a content creator. It is, statistically, the No. 1 most coveted job in America right now for youth. Some people want to be me, some people want to be YouTubers. I would say you shouldn’t want to be me. I’m living my version of a dream as a YouTuber. You should want to be your version of it. You have to find something you love because it’s going to take so long for you to find an audience.
When it comes to collaborations, what makes you say yes? I’m thinking of Starbucks, which dropped at the same time as the new season.
It is very important that the collaborations are as synergistic as possible. I knew a lot of the contestants would love Starbucks, and if we put it in the city, they naturally want to interact with it and get coffee every day. And they did. I think everyone went, on average, 1.5 times a day. It was very organic. Seasons 1 and 2 of “Beast Games” gave away over $31 million in cash. So I have to work with brands to help fund everything we’re doing. Ideally, it’s just as thematic on brand and easy to integrate as possible.
You mentioned Season 3. How far in advance are you thinking of the next challenges?
If I could cut the camera and somehow have a spell that makes you never leak it, I could probably tell you what 95% of Season 3 would be right now.
Could you see a “Beast Games” movie?
If Amazon’s down, I’ve got some crazy ideas.
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