Special Forces Training in a Reality Show Featuring Celebrities, Would You Watch It?

Imagine being part of Special Forces, Green Berets, or the SWCC. Then having Hollywood have their own versions of your training on TV, featuring a group of celebrities. Would you watch it? Many Americans probably would.

Fox just announced that they would launch a new reality series featuring celebrities undergoing “harsh” Special Operations training in a survival mode format. The show is dubbed “Special Forces: The Ultimate Test.”

There will be 16 celebrities, including “John & Kate Plus 8’s” Kate Gosselin, briefly White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramuci, “the sister” Jamie Lynn Spears, Scary Spice of Spice Girls Mel B, chef Tyler Florence, Olympic skier Guys Kenworthy, former NFL player Danny Amendola, Olympic Soccer player Carli Lloyd, “7th Heaven” star Beverly Mitchell, former MLB baseball player Mike Piazza, Dr. Drew and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kenya Moore.

The show will also focus on grueling endurance tests and missions. The celebrities will be dropped in the Jordanian desert to train with the Special Forces team. Unlike “Survivor,” there will be no voting, no eliminations...just survival. Still, this does not mean it will be an easy game. The network noted that they are even expecting some of the celebrities to drop off just on the first few tests. Some, if not most, might not make it through the end since all contestants are allowed to quit anytime. They can also be disqualified due to injury or be asked to leave by the Special Operations trainers.

The show is the US iteration of the UK’s “SAS: Who Dares Wins.” The UK show is a quasi-military training reality show on Channel 4 that started in October 2015. The show pushes its contestants in harsh environments all around the world in a short two-week training course that supposedly mimics the curriculum of the actual United Kingdom Special Forces selection course.

“SAS: Who Dares Wins” features Ant Middleton as its Chief Instructor. Middleton is an ex-UK Special Forces operator who served in the Special Boat Service. He joined the Army when he was just 17 in 1998 and served tours of duty in Northern Ireland. He also enlisted in the Royal Marines in 2003 after leaving the Army.

Since the “Special Forces: The Ultimate Test” is formatted after the UK version, it is expected that they will also feature someone with extensive Special Forces experience. Is it SOFREP publisher Brandon Webb? We don’t know yet. The host is yet to be announced, so this gives us a lot of leeway when it comes to speculation.

As for the content of the “training,” if it will really follow the actual Special Operations Training (SOT), we can expect it to be a 3-4 week course that would consist of advanced weapons training. The trainees, in this case, the celebrities, would be assigned to either a Ranger or Marine to do pistol marksmanship and advanced rifle marksmanship.

Then, as we’ve covered here in SOFREP, the trainees will also undergo “critical skills” training.

“Out at Mott Lake, the Special Forces soldiers fired an absurd amount of ammunition during a three-week course. They also constructed and used all sorts of obscure explosive charges. The course was “solely designed for the ODA to give them baseline training and develop their own standard operating procedures,” Joe Crane described.

Then, they could also undergo the Special Forces Advanced Reconnaissance, Target Analysis, and Exploitation Techniques Course (SFARTAETC).

“You’re there to learn how to take a mission, plan for it, practice it, and do it successfully. You had some officers doing a tactical operations center situation so they understand how the information is coming in. Snipers are out there after going through a sniper/observer course watching targets. They did a lot of things that technology can do now. Taking a guy who maybe doesn’t have the shooting skills and building him up. We want shooters who are thinkers. There was a lot of target discrimination. We want everyone on the same page, everyone knows, you can be anywhere in the stack. How to put charges on doors. Everyone had charges and flex cuffs.”

They could also use the training for Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat (SFAUC). SFAUC course usually runs for four weeks, focusing on marksmanship, explosive and mechanical breaching. There is also a possibility of training to conduct hostage rescues.

So, with the celebrities listed above, who is your bet on winning the competition and finishing the training until the end?