Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
New recruits
The competitive worlds of Hollywood and professional sports create some pretty tough cookies, but the challenges of rising to the top of their industry aren’t enough for a few famous faces who are about to take on the ultimate test of endurance. “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” premieres Wednesday, Jan. 4, on Fox, with 16 celebrities willing to face real special forces challenges and prove they can survive.
As Directing Staff (DS) agents, former Marine Rudy Reyes, ex-SAS and bodyguard to the stars Mark “Billy” Billingham, former SAS and Special Boat Service veteran Jason “Foxy” Fox, and former Navy SEAL/”The Terminal List” actor Remi Adeleke oversee the new celebrity recruits, guiding them through 10 days of intense training exercises similar to those used to enlist special forces agents. No stranger to these exercises themselves, the DS agents help the contestants prepare for simulated missions and pull them out if they don’t make the cut.
The VIPs pulling on their camo best are: Spice Girl and “America’s Got Talent” judge Mel B; former NFL player Danny Amendola; “The Bachelorette” lead Hannah Brown; chef and host of “The Great Food Truck Race,” Tyler Florence; Kate Gosselin of “Jon & Kate Plus 8”; NBA all-star Dwight Howard; “This Is How We Do It” singer Montell Jordan; British Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy; “7th Heaven” actress Beverley Mitchell; fivetime Olympic medalist Nastia Liukin; “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kenya Moore; two-time Olympic gold medalist and soccer player Carli Lloyd; former MLB player Mike Piazza; MTV’s favorite “Teen Mom” moderator, Dr. Drew Pinsky; businessman and shortest-ever-serving White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci; and, finally, “Zoey 101” actress Jamie Lynn Spears.
Surrounded by a desolate desert landscape, “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” contestants face physically and mentally grueling challenges with only one objective: survive. Alliances won’t do players any good in this game, as there will be no elimination votes cast: contestants can only exit the 10-day competition by failure, injury, quitting or being ejected by the DS. There is no grand prize at the end of the special forces journey, except for the satisfaction of having completed a uniquely punishing challenge.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Billingham broke down how exactly he and the other DS agents shatter contestants’ barriers, saying, “We don’t break people — we strip them back to their raw self.” Billingham further explained: “that means getting right inside their head, their emotions, how they think and how they tick.” While he may not “break” them, he does in
sist “we scream at them, we shout at them, this is raw.”
Billingham really doesn’t sugarcoat how unfamiliar the conditions of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” are to the celebrity contestants. He says in the same interview, “There’s no soap on a rope, there’s no coffee lattes on demand, there’s no using your cellphone. Everything is controlled by us.” Just how controlling are Billingham and the rest of the DS agents running the training exercises? Billingham told Entertainment Tonight, “We even take away their names and give them a number.” Not only are contestants leaving creature comforts behind, they’re being shut down on a personal level, the social isolation making the physical challenges that much more difficult.
The official trailer for the series opens with Spears dramatically falling headfirst from a helicopter into a body of water, while a voice dramatically narrates, “If you should die, that is nature’s way of saying you failed.” Teased in the trailer are some of the special forces challenges, including a high-wire walk, a submerged vehicle escape, hand-to-hand combat and maneuvering through a simulated war zone. Contestants visibly struggle while suspending their packs above their heads, running through dusty terrain and crawling through claustrophobic tunnels.
Dropping celebrities into environments that are unfamiliar to them is an undeniably winning TV format, with hits from the early days of reality TV such as “The Surreal Life” and “I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here” across the pond leading the way. The genre is still a proven hit with recent shows such as “Beyond the Edge” and “Celebrity Big Brother.” It’s even birthed fun takes on the celebrity reality mix, such as “Claim to Fame,” a “Big Brother”-esque series that put relatives of celebrities in a house and left them to form alliances and battle it out for a $100,000 grand prize.
As for these special forces hopefuls, they have obviously considered what physical challenges “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” has in store for them, but what they may have left out of the equation are the psychological struggles they may face over the short yet brutal 10-day excursion. Contestants come up against their own fears of heights or drowning, of course, but the training program expects an immense amount of obedience and adherence to its hierarchy. Not the easiest feat for people who are presumably at the top of their own food chain day-today.
Tidy your barracks and report for duty when “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” premieres Wednesday, Jan. 4, on Fox.