Special Forces: World’s Toughest Testaired its third season in 2025, so here’s every winner from the quasi-military training show thus far. The 2023 reality series combinespeople’s love of military TVand reality shows for an action-packed, often very dramatic, series that pits a crew of celebrity contestants against a training regimen designed to mimic those used by the United States Special Forces for their selection processes. The challenges are mental as well as physical, and are designed by ex-US military members.
Unlike other reality shows,Special Forces: World’s Toughest Testdoes not have a formal elimination process. Instead, contestants have to voluntarily withdraw if the strain becomes too much. However, production can decide a contestant needs to medically withdraw, à lathe popular wilderness survival seriesAlone. This also means that each season ofSpecial Forcescan have multiple winners, and so far, each has had at least two pass the tests. As celebrities, each of theseSpecial Forceswinners has a bit of a backstory beyond their victory.
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7Hannah Brown
Season 1
Hannah Brown was one of two winnersin season 1 ofSpecial Forces: World’s Toughest Test, which was a class of 16. Only four competitors were left in the finale of season 1: Brown, Carli Lloyd, Dwight Howard, and Danny Amendola. The final episode of the season saw the four remaining challengers forced to undergo 12 hours of interrogation with the only directive being to stay alive at any cost. They are placed in a room for four hours with uncomfortable sounds and then brought out for questioning.
Brown said it was, “It was harder than anything I’d ever done” (viaPeople). They are individually asked about their mission, meaning they have to remember the cover story they were given the day before. They were then put in a box and told to give a valuable piece of information. Brown ultimately told the interrogators she was Special Forces, leading to her victory.
6Carli Lloyd
Carli Lloyd was the co-winner of season 1 along with Brown. She beat out a slew of other celebrity contestants, including Anthony Scaramucci, Mel B, Jamie Lynn Spears, Kate Gosselin, and Kenya Moore. The last 24 hours of the competition were naturally the toughest and saw military specialists screaming in their faces while being put into uncomfortable positions for sleep, and being subjected to loud noises and distracting sounds. Lloyd said about the experience (viaHollywoodLife),
“The last 24 hours were absolute torture. I don’t even know the place that I went to, but I went to a deep dark place and just tried to think of happy thoughts knowing that I was almost at the finish line. But I just kept telling myself I just didn’t want to quit. That was my main goal. I couldn’t bring myself to quit. Whatever I had to do to get through it, I was going to do so. It was extremely rewarding, and I felt incredibly proud and just pushed my limits to a mental capacity that I really didn’t know I had in me.”
As an Olympic gold medalist, Lloyd was up to the physical challenges she faced on the show.It was the mental challenges that she struggled with at firstand then overcame. Even when it came to frightening tasks like bridge-jumping, repelling from a high height, or diving out of a helicopter, Lloyd was always ready to conquer her fears and complete the task.
5Tyler Cameron
Season 2
Season 2 ofSpecial Forces: World’s Toughest Challengefeatures a whole new cast of celebrities, including Jojo Siwa, Tom Sandoval, Dez Bryant, Blac Chyna, and Tara Reid. Tyler Cameron was one of three winners in the Fall 2023 season. A contestant on season 15 ofThe Bachelorette, Cameron beat out Siwa and Sandoval in the finale to be crowned co-winner. Throughout the season,Cameron showed a lot of grit and perseverance and would frequently offer help to other contestants.
Cameron described the experience as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” (viaPeople). Despite the difficulty of completing some of the tasks, Cameron always seemed game for whatever was thrown his way. It always seemed like he would be a finalist, and whether it was a physical or mental challenge, he took them all on with his signature optimism.
4Erin Jackson
Olympic gold medalist speed skater Erin Jackson was another of the three winners ofSpecial Forcesseason 2. The final episode of season 2, much like the final episode of season 1, saw the five finalists interrogated about the cover story they were given the previous day. The hardships the season 2 contestants endured were even more intense. They are chained up in a dark room with hoods on and subjected to irritating noises and freezing temperatures. Obviously, it was a lot for Jackson, who said (viaUSSpeedSkating),
“I wouldn’t really call it a fun experience. I don’t think it was meant to be fun.”
Jackson proved her mettle in previous episodes, engaging in hand-to-hand combat and dangling from a rope 200 feet above the ground as she attempted to cross a ravine. In the final episode, Jackson refuses to give up her cover story, but when threatened with dunking in an ice bath, the hydrophobic Jackson admits she’s with Special Forces. This earns her the win, as the staff says knowing when to ditch a cover story to save everyone’s lives is important.
3Nick Viall
The third winner ofSpecial Forcesseason 2 is Nick Viall, a recurring star ofThe BachelorandThe Bachelorette. Viall, along with Cameron, was one of the last two contestants to break their cover story. After Jackson reveals she’s with Special Forces and is secretly given the win, Viall and Cameron are taken outside to watch her eat a warm meal while they have buckets of water dumped on their heads. Eventually, they give up the game too, and are given the win.
Viall spent a lot of the season in the middle of the pack, but as more and more contestants dropped out, he stepped up, impressing the special forces operators running the show.
For Viall, the most difficult aspect of the show was the constant repetition and lack of downtime. He said, “It was just constant over and over again. That, to me, was the hardest part” (viaDeadline). Viall spent a lot of the season in the middle of the pack, but as more and more contestants dropped out, he stepped up, impressing the special forces operators running the show.
2Kayla Nicole
Season 3
The cast ofSpecial Forcesseason 3includes Kayla Nicole, Body Jenner, Cam Newton, Christy Carlson Romano, Denise Richards, Stephen Baldwin, Nathan Adrian, and Marion Jones, among others. Nicole is a media personality and influencer, andone of the lesser-known contestants to ever appear on the show. She was a co-winner of season 3 alongside Jenner. Nicole never blew away the competition, but she was steady and determined throughout.
Nicole had promised herself that if she made it to the final day, “…there was just no option of going home… I’ve made it this far” (viaUSMagazine). On the final day of the show, during interrogations, Nicole eventually confessed about her involvement with the Special Forces, which the interrogators decided meant she had won, as she’d held out long enough but also managed to still “save” her own life.
1Brody Jenner
Brody Jenner, the reality TV star best known for appearing onThe Hills, was the other winner ofSpecial Forces: World’s Toughest Testseason 3. Jenner was level-headed and a capable leader throughoutSpecial Forces. The 10 days of training took their toll, however, andit was clear that Brody was struggling to maintain weight as the days went on. When Jenner got to the interrogation section of the challenge, he relied on his reality TV experience to get him through (viaPeople),
“I’m used to interrogation, being a reality star, living in the spotlight like that. People aren’t laughing with you. They’re laughing at you, getting all these questions bombarded on you by [the] paparazzi.”
After the specialists threatened to shove Jenner’s head underwater, he admitted he was training in the Special Forces, but according to the interrogators, he held out just long enough to justify granting him the win. Jenner felt like he might quit early in the season, but he hung around, improving every day of the competition.
Other Candidates Who Deserved To Win Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
Anyone who makes it the final day ofSpecial Forces: World’s Toughest Testdeserves to be called a winner, but a handful in particular should have been crowned co-champions. Dwight Howard in season 1 and Golden Tate and Cam Newton in season 3 all made it through the entire challenge but failed to build a “rapport” with the interrogators. TheSpecial Forceswinners always seem to be selected by how they time their “confession”, which is frustrating for fans of Howard, Tate, and Newton, because it seems like a somewhat arbitrary line between giving up and completing the task.
