Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Special Forces: World's Toughest Test episode "Mindset." Read at your own risk!
Special Forces: World's Toughest Test has steadily built a reputation over its first two weeks as one of the more challenging reality shows in recent memory, which is surprising considering it's a show centered around celebrity participants. Viewers saw three celebrities drop out in the two-hour premiere, and the latest episode saw another three exits. Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin was one of those who voluntarily walked away and later revealed to CinemaBlend that the show is even more difficult than some might realize.
Nastia Liukin is a five-time Olympic medalist as a gymnast, which made her one of the more celebrated athletes participating in Special Forces: World's Toughest Test. Despite that, Liukin voluntarily withdrew from the competition after feeling like she received special treatment during a task, which led to disparaging comments from her peers. I asked Liukin if there was anything left out of the episode that would provide more context behind her exit, and the former Olympian revealed that the show left out or cut down a lot of the time it took for some of the drills they performed:
I mean it's so hard because so much has to get cut out and edited. Even just the first [episode] when we first get there, and we're in our normal outfits, own clothes, I guess you could say, and we had to run to the camp base? That part in itself felt like it was an hour. It looked like it was just a few seconds, but I mean we had to sprint, we had to do bear crawls, we had to do push-ups in the middle of the desert. I think that's what people don't quite see. The level of intensity that it truly is. There were no like, ‘Okay! Camera cuts!’ It was constant [drills] day in and day out. Not one moment there was ever a break.
Special Forces: World's Toughest Test can only show so much footage from each day of filming, and like most good reality television, cuts down an entire day in a way that tells the best story. As such, viewers don't see every contestant complete their challenge from start to finish or the reported four hours that Dr. Drew Pinsky spent in the medical tent trying to hydrate. There's just not enough time to show just how challenging and how brutal this experience really was, according to Nastia Liukin.
It really puts things in perspective for me as a viewer because if someone revisits the episode with their Hulu subscription, they'll see Special Forces: World's Toughest Test already seems pretty intense. I asked Nastia Liukin if she'd agree that the show is even more brutal than what viewers might imagine, and she confirmed that's absolutely the case:
A million percent, like a million percent. I think that's what nobody is seeing. And I'm not trying to like sit here and say, ‘I feel sorry for all of us. It was worse than it was,’ but I think the intensity, you're just not able to show that in an hour. Even the first episode was the first two days combined, essentially. There's no way to portray that unless you're live-streaming the whole thing. It was every single moment. Even that first episode in the middle of the night, when we had to do the obstacle course? That went on for so long, and we were all miserable. You just aren't able to physically show [all of] that. It's nobody's [fault], you know, [I'm] not blaming anybody for that. The way it was produced was just beautifully done, obviously. But yeah, I think you're just not fully able to see how intense it actually is.
Viewers may not get the full experience of how brutal Special Forces: World's Toughest Test is, but they can imagine after hearing about the aftermath. Reality star Kate Gosselin still has neck pain from her helicopter jump, so it's not like these medical withdrawals were just for show.
As brutal as it may be, however, some former contestants are already ready to return if given a chance. Dr. Drew Pinsky is on the record as saying he'd return for Season 2 if it happens. I'm eager to see if it is renewed and if they'll find enough celebrities to participate after seeing how brutal things are so far in Season 1.
Special Forces: World's Toughest Test airs on Fox on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. It's been one of the best shows on the 2023 TV schedule so far, but with the year so young, I'm sure there are many others on the list worth checking out.
