Former contestants of Netflix’s upcoming reality competition series “Squid Game: The Challenge” have accused the competition of having “rigged” games with “cruel” conditions.
The competition, which is based on director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s hit survival drama series “Squid Game,” features 456 players competing for $4.56 million, the largest cash prize in reality TV history.
Premiering on the streaming platform sometime this year, filming began on Jan. 23. Contestants were woken up in the early-morning hours and brought to Cardington Studios, a former Royal Air Force base located north of London.
According to previous reports, players were forced to compete in the show’s “Red Light, Green Light” game in below-freezing temperatures.
The inhumane conditions reportedly resulted in at least 10 people collapsing, with three people being treated for mild medical conditions.
“It was just the cruelest, meanest thing I’ve ever been through,” a former contestant told Rolling Stone. “We were a human horse race, and they were treating us like horses out in the cold racing and [the race] was fixed.”
“All the torment and trauma we experienced wasn’t due to the game or the rigor of the game,” another player added. “It was the incompetencies of scale — they bit off more than they could chew.”
Netflix, along with production partners Studio Lambert and the Garden, previously disputed the recent claims in a statement.
We care deeply about the health and safety of our cast and crew, and invested in all the appropriate safety procedures. While it was very cold on set — and participants were prepared for that — any claims of serious injury are untrue.
Some contestants were also reported to have allegedly suffered other injuries and health issues, including a herniated disc, a torn knee tendon, pneumonia and an ear infection.
Besides the freezing conditions, former players complained about the games being “rigged” in a new…
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