Five contestants - all women - are launching legal action against Donaldson's production company and Amazon, the studio, saying they were denied pay and basic hygiene and medical products and subjected to a "culture of misogyny".

Beast Games is modelled on Donaldson's ultra-popular YouTube videos, and will involve a thousand people competing for a $5 million cash prize - the biggest jackpot in game show history.

Despite having nearly 300 million followers, Donaldson has mostly flown under the radar of legacy media outlets, which struggle to understand the world of online content creation.

The lawsuit threatens to tarnish his brand. To his followers, he's known as "the internet's nicest man".