The South Korean Round 6, the most watched Netflix original series in history, won a puppy last Wednesday (22), The Challenge, which sends 456 participants from around the world into tests similar to the fictional attraction but with a very real prize of US$4.56 million (R$22.3 million at current prices). But what should have been an easy success for the platform turned into a nightmare: participants accuse the production of abuse and manipulation of results, and a law firm is threatening to sue the streaming company for endangering the health of competitors.
Over the course of the week is the TV news spoke to five players from Round 6: The Challenge. All made serious allegations against Netflix and the production company Studio Lambert responsible for the reality show. With contracts prohibiting them from speaking (even positively) about what happened behind the scenes, four of them requested anonymity. Singer Yohan Tanaka, the only Brazilian among the 456 participants, agreed to reveal his identity.
Yohan, identified as Player 379, appears briefly in the first episode of Round 6: The Challenge. He passed the first test, Potato Chips 1, 2, 3 the test that involves a giant doll and an elaborate statue game. But its immediate removal is controversial. The Brazilian assures that he and more than a dozen other participants were “killed” in the game without any explanation even though they completed the test without breaking the rules and within the time set by production.
In fact, time behind the scenes is a relative term. For those watching the broadcast, the impression is that the test lasted five minutes. In reality, according to those interviewed, around 10 hours of footage was shot in intense cold with no chance of getting warm and the season was filmed in January, when temperatures were below freezing in England.
“We didn’t have a watch or a cell phone with us. [para saber quanto tempo durou a prova], but it was very time consuming and very difficult. They did a lap and then there was a 20 minute break during which they could move the cameras and drones around everyone and record everyone’s reactions. And back then we had to stay quiet to avoid being eliminated,” says Yohan.
Despite the cold, everyone had to leave their green coats open so that in the event of a possible elimination, the explosion of the scenographic blood packets would have more contrast on the white Tshirts.
One of the participants, who was eliminated early for moving illegally, says she was ordered to lie on the floor and pretend to be dead. She refused, fearing the players being trampled behind her and having to run across the test track.
All ears still report that due to the subzero temperatures and the long recording, they saw people fainting, crying and begging for medical help. One player even had cramps and another was removed in a scenic coffin used as a stretcher. The series shows the withdrawal of a single participant, who claims that she can no longer maintain her position as a statue and falls to the ground since the cut gives the impression that the test only lasted five minutes, it is difficult to know the real reason for the fall to understand.
Another woman, who spoke to the reporter on condition of anonymity, suffers from asthma and due to the discomfort she faced, was diagnosed with a respiratory infection when she returned home, which is being treated with antibiotics had to. “If I had known beforehand that we would be faced with such extreme conditions, I would have taken my brown firecracker [de beclometasona, mais forte]instead of blue [de salbutamol, de efeito mais rápido].
On Thursday (23), British law firm Express Solicitors said it would sue Netflix and Studio Lambert for threatening the health of gamers in the name of entertainment. Two participants have already contacted the law firm, which is looking for additional participants to give the campaign more weight.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter website, producer Stephen Lambert explained that contestants are already prepared to face adverse situations due to the reality show’s award, which he said is the largest in the history of global television. “It may not be a walk in the park, but it is more fun than other successful programs shown in the United States and the rest of the world,” he minimized.
Manipulation of results
Brazilian singer Yohan Tanaka claims that the results of Round 6: The Challenge were manipulated by the team
For Yohan Tanaka, the poor conditions weren’t the biggest problem. Like Lambert, he believes anyone who saw Round 6 should have expected complicated obstacles in the fictional series, contestants eventually die if they fail the tests.
“I already knew it would be difficult because our contracts were abusive, we sold ourselves to the core. So this problem with the cold, not eating or drinking anything for ten hours, your fingers freezing, seeing people.” Fainting, seizure. Everything is sad, but I think it’s part of the competition. “What remains in my memory is this great farce,” he accuses.
Tanaka points out that he should not have been eliminated in the first test. “We managed to pass, a group of 20 or 30 people, all in the same round. Everyone hugged each other, I cried, I couldn’t take it anymore, everything in my body hurt. We sat there waiting for the next round.” “There was another couple of 15, 20 minute breaks to record everyone’s reactions and then when it started they told us to leave the testing area.”
“When we got up to leave, everyone’s blood bags burst. Some people immediately started crying and I tried to calm myself down: ‘No, it must be a technical error, let’s talk to production and everything will be fine’. And the team.” “I kind of tried to push us away. I immediately understood what was going on because I have been working in the entertainment industry for a long time,” he says, who has worked as a model and is also a stylist.
Realizing that the group would be unfairly eliminated, Yohan decided to fight. “I started screaming and making a fuss. I said we wanted to talk to the director and look at the recorded footage to see if we had gone overtime. And then the crowd started screaming and protesting. I think everyone was overwhelmed.” The emotions, the adrenaline, it was general confusion.
A creative director from Round 6: The Challenge even spoke to the Brazilian’s group and tried to reassure him by promising that he would email the recording later. “I stuck my finger in his face because he called us idiots there, right? I said, ‘Should we go and wait for you to email this to me later? So you can edit your lying game?’ Who do you think I am? Who do you think we are? We’re all adults here!’. And the crowd was cursing and shouting and angry.”
The protests were useless. “The moment came when we saw that nothing could be solved, that there was nothing else to do. We went to the hotel frustrated, crying, nervous, tired. Everyone felt bad, left behind because they had taken that away.” “Our chance to win a prize that we don’t even know exists,” he adds.
The group’s elimination, nicknamed “The 38 Second Massacre” (due to the time left for players to cross the finish line), wasn’t the only manipulation Yohan pointed out. He claims that the player Leann, who distinguished herself by competing alongside her son Trey, finished the race one lap after the Brazilian. “She was behind me! When my group passed, there were three seconds left! Then they told me that the clock had magically increased to five seconds so it could happen.”
The singer also questions the decision of some participants to receive advantages in the game. In the first episode, Kyle and Dani are asked by production to eliminate a competitor. At no point is it explained why the two were chosen. “Even if you didn’t take part in the game and just watched the broadcast, you can see that there was manipulation. Why do they both have this opportunity? “What did they do?” he asks.
Signs that something is wrong
For the players interviewed in the report, there were signs that things weren’t going to be fair even before recording began but they refused to acknowledge the obvious. Tanaka says that when he arrived in London, he had already received his return ticket, which was supposed to take place a week later, although the shoot was supposed to take about three weeks.
“I asked why they already had my return flight without knowing when I would be out and they said it was easier to buy all the tickets and then postpone the trips of those who were staying overnight. That doesn’t even make sense, but it did back then.” “I just gave in,” he laments.
Another participant pointed out that her microphone set a ring that hung around her neck, like the one used by prisoners at the BBB was just a piece of plastic with a foam tip on the tip, without any electronic device for recording of the microphone there was sound. She surveyed other players and only a few had real equipment. When they confronted the producers, they learned that whoever received the piece of plastic had a wireless microphone.
The uprising reached such a point that participants gathered on WhatsApp in a group called Squid Game: The Nightmare (Round 6: The Nightmare, literally translated). Tanaka claims that he was responsible for naming the group. “Because that’s exactly what happened, right? Every dream has turned into a nightmare.”
O TV news had access to this group, which currently has 141 members. There they exchange reports about their experiences, strange facts that they witnessed during the recording and only now understood, and also messages of support. Most participants were eliminated in the potato chip competition (a total of 259 people fell before the doll), but some were also eliminated in the second and third competitions.
“If the competition was real, no one would complain. We faced a punk situation, but it was our decision. I believed I could win $4.56 million on my own,” says Yohan. “Who in their right mind would freeze in the cold for ten hours and then be eliminated because there were already too many people there? Appearing on TV for five or ten seconds? I know my group crossed the finish line and Netflix made a big mistake, eliminating 20, 30 people at once. Because there she showed manipulation.”
Since Thursday (23), the report has been looking for Netflix in both Brazil and the United States to respond to the allegations made by Yohan Tanaka and the other participants. Despite assurances that he would return within hours, the North American press office did not respond to further contacts. The Brazilian team did not comment on the case.