"Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test" premiers on Fox next month, promising to put a group of celebrities through "special forces" tests of endurance.
It is not clear what the goal is other than to make for some good television, but there is certainly an audience out there that wants to see some people break down crying in the desert and then lead to some type of cathartic growing experience.
The show is hosted by British SAS veteran Mark Billingham, former Navy SEAL Remi Adeleke, and former Recon Marine Rudy Reyes. On the show, these special ops veterans will put celebrities I've never heard of through a series of grueling tests. The trailer shows them doing some climbing and rope work, what looks like a gas chamber, combatives, and old fashion endurance exercises.
"These celebrities, who are so used to being in the spotlight, quickly learn the meaning of 'no guts, no glory' – and no glam," the show's press release tells us.
The two minute long trailer reveals the show to be filled with come-to-Jesus moments of personal struggle and exhaustion for the participants, while their ex-special ops instructors deliver cliche-ridden tough talk, with and without accusatory finger-pointing.
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The show is supposed to mimic special operations selection courses, which are designed to suck. On a personal level, I can't say I find a show like this interesting however when getting together with other special ops veterans for a drink, just last night, for instance, some of these stories start coming out. Remembered with a laugh in retrospect, because we all know how much it sucked at the time.
Maybe that's the real ASMR that shows like this are trying to capture, the feeling of shared experience and camaraderie that doesn't normally exist in civilian life. Some people even pay good money to have ex-special ops guys put them through a selection course, for fun I'm told!
Personally, I cut the cord and ditched cable television many years ago but if you're interested to see which B-list celebs can suck it up through a mock special forces selection, then you can check out the show when it premiers on Fox on Jan. 4.
Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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