SPECIAL FORCES: WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST: Kayla Nicole in the special 2-hour Season 3 premiere of SPECIAL FORCES: WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST airing Wednesday, January 8 (8:00-10:00 PM ET /PT) on FOX. CR: Pete Dadds / FOX. ©2025 FOX MEDIA LLC.
Originally posted onJanuary 11, 2025 @ 9:35 pm
Special Forces World’s Toughest Test Season 3 Premiere Recap
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season three opens with the sixteen celebrities showing up in Wales, not knowing what they got themselves into.
Nathan Adrian, Stephen Baldwin, Alana Blanchard, Landon Donovan, Carey Hart, Brody Jenner, Marion Jones, Ali Manno, Cam Newton, Kayla Nicole, Kyla Pratt, Denise Richards, Christy Carlson Romano, Trista Sutter, Golden Tate and Jordyn Wieber are all on the show this season.
Rudy, who is one of the Special Forces Officers, says that this is no vacation.
Actor Stephen Baldwin says he is not a Special Forces guy, but he played one on TV.
The celebrities are all attacked and have their heads covered, told to stay down. Foxy, another Special Forces Officer says this is a physical and psychological test.
NFL star Cam Newton is told to stop smiling and told to not be cocky….before he is pushed into the water and told to swim.
One by one, the other celebrities are pushed in and expected to swim. Once they get to dry land, they have to navigate around dry land.
Denise Richards struggles to swim and has to be dragged to shore.
Stephen is struggling to swim and is chewed out by another Special Forces Officer.
The directing staff tells the celebrities that they will address them as staff.
Christy Carlson Romano is doing this to understand what her husband went through as a Marine.
After each celebrity is given their number, they are told to strip….quickly. Stephen continues to struggle and gets yelled at some more.
The staff continues to yell at them and tell them that they will go home if they don’t give 100%. If they cannot handle it, they can voluntarily withdraw or the staff could decide for them.
The celebrities go into the cars and discuss what they’ve faced so far and what they expect to happen next.
They are now in Holyhead Harbor, where they continue to get yelled at. Several of them struggle to breathe while running.
The first task has them jumping from a moving boat, grabbing onto a helicopter and then getting in it as quickly as possible.
Denise wants to overcome her fears by doing the show. She is the first to do the task and while she falls into the water as she tries to get in the helicopter. She fails.
Olympic gymnast Jordyn Wieber is determined to do this and relies on her bars skills to help her…but misses the helicopter by inches.
Stephen is up next and wants to be the hero….for himself and for his grandchildren. He makes it into the helicopter!
Olympian Marion Jones Thompson also makes it on, as does reality star Brody Jenner.
Carey Hart also makes it on.
Christy fails, as does Kyra and several others. It goes by so fast you can’t see who is jumping all the time.
Super Bowl Champion Golden Tate makes it on, as does Cam Newton.
After they do pushups, they must march back to the cars and go to their next event.
They arrive at their destination and must separate based on who passed and failed the course. 50% failed, which the staff deems unacceptable. They arrive at their living quarters, which must be kept immaculate. They will also be traveling in pairs.
There is no toilet paper or an actual toilet…so they are going in a hole in the ground.
As the celebrities get settled in, the staff assess them, giving the pros and cons on each. They decide to talk to Denise. She admits she is emotional as they give her feedback on how she has done so far.
They want to know why she is there, and she admits she can freeze in certain situations, including when she and her husband were shot at in their car. It brought her back to when she was assaulted as a teenager.
The staff tells her not to let fear control her and send her on her way. They think she will be fine once she gets out of her own head.
The staff calls the celebrities outside and tells them the 50% who failed are on their hit list. They are now in a water tank known as a beehive, which makes them feel like they are in the open ocean. Some of them try to go to the wall but get yelled at.
Stephen seems to be struggling the most and can’t even breathe. Jordyn also has trouble breathing.
Several others struggle, leading to the staff calling them pathetic.
After the task is over and they go back to the barracks to change, Stephen continues to struggle breathing. He goes to get a medical consultation. It turns out he smashed his meniscus and hurt his neck and back. He talks to the doctor and says he has another gig and cannot get injured, which is his way of getting sent home.
The doctor talks to the staff, who put the recruits on parade. They get yelled at and told someone made excuses for their pitiful performances. The person going home is….Stephen. He is told he failed the course and himself before he is sent home.
Day two begins bright and early with everyone getting to know each other. Kayla Nicole talks about her breakup with Travis Kelce and how his relationship with Taylor Swift is thrown in her face.
The next task has them all jumping off a bridge and swinging back and forth on a rope before landing.
Everyone is freaking out, but is determined to do it. Former Bachelorette Ali Manno has been preparing for this by working out twice a day every day. She wants to go back to her fearless self. Despite being terrified, she jumps off, but ends up getting twisted and fails the task. She hurts her finger but is determined to stay and keep doing better.
Golden is up next and despite having a perfect jump, does gun signals, causing him to fail.
Denise also fails, as does OG Bachelorette Trista Sutter and actress Kyla Pratt.
Jordyn passes as does someone else we are not able to see and Cam. Half have passed, but we do not see who it is. Cam tries to give someone a handshake and gets yelled at.
Kayla is determined to prove herself and passes.
The staff says six of them failed and that is not good enough. As punishment, their bags are tossed in the water, and they must grab them and carry them back to the barracks.
Everyone is exhausted and realize how tough this is. Golden owns that he does have arrogance and goofy and he must work on it.
Kayla is brought in to talk to staff. She admits she feels depleted and admits she is afraid of embarrassing herself. She also admits that she wants to prove herself. The staff shows her a story about her being bullied by Travis and Taylor fans and she admits the comparison to Taylor bothers her. The staff tells her to stay in the game and keep her focus. They day she is here for a reason and she should finish it up.
Kayla goes back and tells the others what happened, getting some nice support.
Next task! As they are running, Denise is in a lot of pain. They all do a surf immersion test where they link arms and go into the water, moving as one. Special Forces Officer Q explains how it works.
Denise breaks the chain and cannot even move. She hurt her back and decides to withdraw.
Jordyn struggles with her breathing. She is told to get a grip and goes back to the task.
The celebrities do an endurance drill while being yelled at by staff.
They are all sent to the vehicles with Trista struggling to walk.
Trista sees the medic for possible hypothermia.
The staff talk to Jordyn about her anxiety. She talks about the abuse she went through by the doctor and how it impacted her life. She has unfinished business and is told to not give up.
Ali’s hand is hurt and she is forced to medically withdraw. She is so upset because she really wants to stay.
More next week, stay tuned.
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