Best known for her dual status as a sitcom queen and a holiday movie maven, Candace Cameron Bure isn’t exactly a complete stranger to reality TV. She reached third place during Season 18 of Dancing with the Stars, and has shared her support for the show in subsequent years; more recently, she agreed to join The Masked Singer after turning down multiple offers, in part to honor Bob Saget, who competed in the first episode she ever watched. So how did she end up on Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test?
The Full House and Fuller House vet talked with CinemaBlend to promote the fifth season of World’s Toughest Test hitting the 2026 TV schedule, where she’ll be seen alongside other celebs such as Ruby Rose, Breana Tiesi, Brandy Glanville and LeSean McCoy, to name a few. When I shared how excited I was to see her in the wild, given how unpredictable and scary the series can be, Bure explained why she agreed to compete despite turning down so many other reality TV offers. In her words:
It's an interesting reality show because I'm not prone to doing many of them. I get asked to do a lot of them, but I really love this because it is a competition within yourself. You know, you're not competing against other celebrities in the sense that you're getting voted off, or they're pitting one another against each other. It's really about what you're made of, and trying to do some of the activities that our Navy SEALs do. And it puts a great spotlight on our military. So it was a really cool opportunity, but it was super scary, and you really learn a lot about yourself.
Her reasoning there is, I think, one of the reasons why Special Forces: World's Toughest Test has been such a hit with its viewers. Nearly every other elimination-based unscripted series is set up so that all competitors are essentially in direct competition until a single winner emerges; from Survivor to 99 To Beat to Top Chef and beyond. Without that element in play, this show's competitors are able to just focus on bringing out the best in themselves. Which definitely applies to both the mental and physical spectrums, since being fatigued in either area could lead to one's downfall.
That mindset is just as important to maintain on Dancing with the Stars and other shows, but the risk factor involved with World's Toughest Test is far higher than what most reality TV stars have to cope with. With that in mind, I asked Candace Cameron Bure how important learning new life skills was to her as a deciding factor before agreeing to sign on. She told me:
Yeah, it's really important to me, especially doing something that really risks your life. There's so many safety precautions and safety measures while doing the show. However, if something goes wrong, it's very possible, so you're kind of signing your life away to do this show should anything happen. And so there, to me, has to be deeper meaning as to why you're doing it. Yeah, it was interesting to learn some new things about myself while doing it.
Each season's episodes revolve around different themes and skillsets, such as Interrogation, Trust and Evasion. The Directing Staff instructors know how to take it to the limit, and I'm intrigued by the first two Season 5 installments being titled "Jungle Warfare" and "Duty." (I don't even know what I'd want to learn about myself by way of jungle warfare, if I can be blatantly honest. Maybe "how I'd escape jungle warfare the quickest?")
Luckily, as someone who has faced different kinds of adversities both inside and outside of Hollywood, Bure isn't the kind of person who backs down from something simply because it seems intimidating on the surface. Rather, the fear factor was another foundational reason for her to say yes. She explained:
I also really love a challenge, and so part of that was just pushing through the fear: fear of heights, fear of being in the jungle, fear of having no comforts at home, fear of claustrophobia; like all those kinds of things. So I was like, let's just do this. Let's get it out of the way and see what I'm made of.
I'd love to get a count on how many people would turn down the chance to be on Special Forces simply because they wouldn't be able to use their phones or tablets during the production. Which I totally get is a real concern, as would be the lack of private baths and restroom facilities, the lack of snack-filled pantries and fridges, and more creature comforts.
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For all that the heights and jungle setting in Malaysia and other natural elements would be concerning, I think I'd personally also have the minor but pulsating fear of competing alongside world-class athletes whose physical prowess eclipse mine to the point where I have to voluntarily drop out of the show due to shame. But that's just me.
Join us in seeing how things shake out for Candace Cameron Bure when Special Forces: World's Toughest Test Season 5 makes its debut on Fox on Thursday, September 24, at 9:00 p.m. ET, with new episodes available to stream the next day via Hulu subscription.
