‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ Winner Hasn’t Received a Cent of Historic Cash Prize

Although she won one of the largest lump sums in reality TV competition history, Squid Game: The Challenge champion Mai Whelan hasn’t been able to enjoy the spoils of her victory just yet. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Whelan shares that she has yet to receive her $4.56 million  cash prize from Netflix for winning the competition, leaving the streamer with a simple message: “Show me the money.”

On December 6, fans watched Whelan, a 55-year-old immigration adjudicator and US Navy veteran, emerge victorious in Squid Game: The Challenge’s season finale. She clinched her victory after beating 27-year-old-contestant Phill Cain in a game of “rock, paper, scissors,” earning that enormous grand prize. To win what’s technically the second-largest reward in reality TV history—after the US edition of The X Factor, which awarded winners recording contracts worth $5 million—Whelan had to triumph over 455 other contestants in physical and mental games during a two-week competition that aired on Netflix over the course of 10 episodes. Though filming wrapped in February, Whelan says she hasn’t received any of her winnings.

“I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire,” she told The Sunday Times. “Show me the money!”

Someone with knowledge of the production told Vanity Fair that the contestants were always aware of the payment plan and that the winner will receive the prize fund now that the finale episode has aired.

Since winning the competition, based on Netflix’s hit South Korean drama series Squid Game, Whelan has been rather conservative with her spending. She got a short, trendy haircut, a black Ralph Lauren dress, and Jimmy Choo shoes to attend a Squid Game gala. “I still have buyer’s remorse from that, but I think it’s well deserved,” she told The Times.

The Squid Game experience, for Whelan, wasn’t easy. “I didn’t expect it to be so stressful,” Whelan said. “It takes a lot out of you, that game. To beat out 455 players was a very emotional moment for me.” She was not the only one who had a difficult time during the competition series. Shortly after filming wrapped, multiple Squid Game: The Challenge contestants told Rolling Stone that their experience was rife with “torment and trauma,” and that the competition was “rigged” from the start. (Netflix released a statement to Vanity Fair saying the contestants’ claims were “simply untrue”). 

In November, contestants from the reality competition series threatened a lawsuit against Netflix and the show’s producers, alleging that they had been physically harmed while making the show. Two contestants claimed that they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage while shooting the first leg of the series, a game of “Red Light, Green Light” at Cardington Studios in Bedford, UK, outside, in the middle of winter. A Netflix spokesperson told Deadline at the time that no lawsuit had been filed.

“I didn’t have any high expectations. I just wanted to move forward to see the set,” Whelan said of her motivation to succeed, in a recent interview with Today. “That was my whole thing. The whole set that they did was amazing. To see the dormitory and set after set. That drove me: I have to stay in to see another set.”

A grandmother who lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her husband, Whelan told The Times that she intends to buy property whenever her winnings arrive. “I’m thinking about a retirement home somewhere,” said Whelan. “We don’t know where yet, and we are happy with where we are. We live on the water. It’s very peaceful.” She also said she’s interested in donating some portion of the money to “charities for the underprivileged, wildlife, and climate change.” Whelan told the outlet that, per her contract, she is not allowed to share any of her winnings with her former competitors. 

Squid Game: The Challenge was a smashing success for the streaming platform, with more than 170 million hours watched worldwide since its premiere on November 22. It’s already been renewed for a second season. Netflix declined to comment.