Prime Video sees Netflix's New Stanford Prison Experiment, raises it a Fallout Shelter: The Experiment

Reality TV torture has a new name. Prime Video is following MrBeast's lead with a new video game-inspired, trap-contestants-in-a-bunker competition. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  October 23, 2026 | 4:20pm
Screenshot: YouTube
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Prime Video sees Netflix's New Stanford Prison Experiment, raises it a Fallout Shelter: The Experiment

Whether it’s based on a real-life example of ethically dubious experimentation or a fictionalized account of Earth’s inevitable demise at the hands of unchecked capitalism, reality TV is following MrBeast’s torture- people- for- money playbook. And if they can tie it to a popular pre-existing franchise, it’s all the better. On the heels of Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge and the recently launched New Stanford Prison Experiment, Prime Video is launching Fallout Shelter: The Experiment. Using the branding from Prime’s popular adaptation of the Fallout video games, a sci-fi action series about the unlucky survivors of the end of the world, the new series challenges contestants to survive post-apocalyptic challenges for a chance to win $1 million. 

Set inside Vault-Tec’s state-of-the-art bomb-proof vault shelters, Fallout Shelter challenges contestants to survive “high-octane drills, psychological dilemmas and morally challenging behavior trials.” It sounds a lot like Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge or its Prime Video, MrBeast-hosted equivalent, Beast Games. The first season of Beast Games, which recently recognized the IATSE union, faced a damning lawsuit from contestants who alleged sexual harassment, lack of food and medical care, unpaid wages, and emotional distress. Thankfully, Vault Boy has some very good attorneys on retainer. 

Fallout Shelter: The Experiment‘s first 10-episode season premieres with four episodes on January 13. Prime will release three episodes weekly through January 27, 2027.

 
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