Squid Game reality show was rigged, contestants claim

Last June, Netflix announced a reality competition show based on its original series Squid Game. The show, creatively titled Squid Game: The Competition, would feature 456 players competing in challenges similar to those from the Netflix series for a record-breaking cash prize of $4.56 million. Unfortunately, according to contestants, the competition show was a rigged disaster that mirrored Squid Game more closely than any of them could have imagined.

Was Squid Game: The Competition rigged?

On Thursday, Motherboard published a fascinating exposé about Squid Game: The Competition, which was already embroiled in controversy after The Sun reported multiple contestants had been injured. To add insult to injury, former contestants claimed the show was rigged from the start, and even explained to Motherboard how they came to that conclusion.

According to the contestants that spoke to Motherboard, they were discouraged from speaking to one another from the moment they arrived. Early in the morning, prior to the first game, they were all loaded onto a freezing bus to be transported to an airport hangar where the filming would take place. They were reprimanded for speaking to other contestants during the bus ride.

Once they arrived at the hangar, the contestants were provided with “weak coffee and breakfast sandwiches” that were all but frozen. They waited for two to three hours in a holding room, which is when they started talking and realized that while everyone had been given microphone packs, some of the mics didn’t actually work.

The contestant that spoke to Motherboard talked with a number of other participants in that room. One had not applied at all but had been sought out by a producer. There were twins, a father and child, and a TikTok star among them. As they spoke, they realized that some of them already had flights booked for later that week while others didn’t.

“I’m like, ‘Well, maybe it’s just cheaper for them to do that and do a change fee,” the contestant remembered telling the others, but many of them were skeptical. “I’m like, ‘But it’s a competition! They don’t know who’s going to win!’”

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the chaos and confusion the contestants had to deal with while participating, so be sure to read the entire piece from Motherboard if you want to know more. Netflix has still yet to announce a release date for Squid Game: The Competition, but honestly, that might be for the best.