{"id":1290,"date":"2026-05-29T18:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1290"},"modified":"2026-05-29T18:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T18:07:20","slug":"up-late-filming-with-mrbeast-in-his-north-carolina-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1290","title":{"rendered":"Up late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Read more Meet the N&O\u2019s new Raleigh and Wake County reporter, Nolan Wilkinson<\/a><\/p>\n

Greenville, North Carolina, is where MrBeast graduated high school. It\u2019s where he filmed his first viral video \u2014 a feat of stamina and jaw control that saw the future YouTube star count to 100,000 uninterrupted. He was 18. It took 40 hours.<\/p>\n

Greenville, population 96,000 and home to East Carolina University, is where MrBeast grew his online profile stunt after stunt, subscriber after subscriber. It\u2019s where pizza delivery drivers got tipped $10,000 \u2014 or an entire house. It\u2019s where a waiter won a private island<\/a>. Jimmy Donaldson, the man behind MrBeast, has purchased multiple properties around his hometown, through business entities named JSD Real Estate, Heintzelman LLC, and Creative Grids.<\/p>\n

In 2019, JSD Real Estate paid more than $1 million to buy land from a local Baptist church, Pitt County property records show. Donaldson followed that up by acquiring several houses, including a $975,000 gated home (listed on Zillow as having 6.5 bathrooms) in late 2022. Around this time, MrBeast opened a new studio north of downtown that\u2019s now valued<\/a> at $16.5 million.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re intrigued by such large sums, then MrBeast videos may be for you. And I might also recommend Beast Games, the Amazon reality competition that filmed a portion of its upcoming third season Sunday night at the East Carolina University football stadium in front of 15,000 people. I was one of them.<\/p>\n

Doors opened around 8:20 p.m., but some lining up outside the stadium had been there since noon. A group of college students came straight from church, swapping their Sunday best for blue shirts with hot pink letters that collectively spelled out \u201cB-E-A-S-T G-A-M-E-S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a tent set up,\u201d ECU student John Casalaspro, 20, said with an \u201cS\u201d on his chest. \u201cWe had some chairs, we hung out, then we DoorDashed some food and got some drinks and some ice, and just chilled.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a wet and humid Memorial Day eve in Greenville. Brian Futrell wore a rain poncho in line as he and his children waved to a drone passing overhead. They had driven an hour to be there. His daughter Briana, 14, figured she\u2019d excel at the MrBeast competition where you win money by living inside a grocery store.<\/p>\n

Upon entering Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, the powers that be (Amazon\/Beast Industries) had everyone place their phones in locked pouches. The handful of media members in attendance also promised not to share episode spoilers \u2014 which will make the next paragraph pretty vague.<\/p>\n

Read more Stanley Cup Final schedule announced for winner of Hurricanes-Canadiens series<\/a><\/p>\n

Contestants competed in a series of centerpiece games. There were lucrative prizes punctuated with fireworks and a celebrity cameo. Donaldson is known to edit his videos to a science, studying viewer habits to keep people engaged. He displayed this orchestration in real time, at one point asking the thousands before him to do something in unison by explaining, \u201cIt will look really awesome in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for a live taping, which stretched well past midnight, there were also drawn-out interludes as crew members readied equipment for the next event.<\/p>\n

Not that the crowd was bored. Everyone was given a non-vegetarian-friendly meal voucher for one hot dog, one bag of chips, one box of popcorn, a drink, and a Feastables chocolate. Music rarely stopped. Donaldson juggled setting up shots for his future Amazon audience by engaging the stands with a mix of host energy and dry humor. At one point, he asked his crew member Tareq to \u201cHit the Siuuu,\u201d which is something I had to Google but the decidedly Gen Alpha\/Gen Z spectators appreciated.<\/p>\n

And money was everywhere. Attendees could win cash if their raffle numbers were called \u2014 from $1,000 to $10,000. The slim prospect of walking away richer was a draw; before entering the stadium, I saw a group of young children roar \u201cWe love money, yeah!\u201d into a camera.<\/p>\n

What was largely absent was any mention of Greenville. Donaldson shared few if any childhood memories or references to this being his hometown. The production was set in Eastern North Carolina, but the event was ultimately geared for Amazon\u2019s global audience<\/a>. Perhaps Donaldson will disclose more once the episode airs \u2014 in a biographical voiceover or a visit to his old haunts. But this omission gave the live taping a bit of a sterile feel. Like it was all occurring in a controlled fantasy world, not in a place off Interstate 587 where the ECU Pirates play their home games.<\/p>\n

Or maybe Donaldson divulged his most cherished local high school memories after I left. Unlike the man who counted to 100,000, I didn\u2019t make it to the end. At 20 minutes past midnight, with an hour-and-a-half drive back to Durham in front of me, I headed for the parking lot.<\/p>\n

But few others were streaming out of the stadium. The final game had just begun. And there was a $10,000 raffle to follow.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n

Thank you for supporting local journalism. If you liked it, consider sharing it with a friend. If it was forwarded to you, sign up here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Read more Cary homeowners push back on proposed tax increase<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 9:19 AM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Donaldson films Beast Games Season 3 episode on ECU campus in Greenville, North Carolina, as MrBeast tapes Amazon show in NC hometown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nUp late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Up late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown - Durham Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jimmy Donaldson films Beast Games Season 3 episode on ECU campus in Greenville, North Carolina, as MrBeast tapes Amazon show in NC hometown.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Durham Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-29T18:07:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bf1f081e7f06a3ab66052e5f6015fd85\"},\"headline\":\"Up late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-29T18:07:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290\"},\"wordCount\":903,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/5889a2d44a6084824a62627fbdeaf3bf.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Read today's Edition\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/durhammovinghub.com\\\/?p=1290\",\"name\":\"Up late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown - 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