Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 — release date, cast & everything we know

Denise Richards standing in water in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3

(Image credit: Pete Dadds/FOX)

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is once again helping to lead FOX’s winter rollout of reality shows as Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 helps the network kick off the new year. The series joins Kitchen Nightmares: Road to Super Bowl LIX, the continuation of Hell’s Kitchen season 23 and The Floor season 3 in providing TV watchers with some nice alternatives to scripted television.

In the new season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, 16 new celebrities are again put through some grueling challenges at the hands of ex-special forces operatives. Per usual, the celebs don’t have to fear being eliminated from the competition, as they themselves decide how much they can take and when to call it quits.

Here’s everything we know about Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 release date

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 is a five-week event that premieres on Wednesday, January 8, at 8 pm ET/PT on FOX.

Special Forces: World's Toughest Test airs live on FOX in the US. If you’ve cut ties with traditional cable/satellite TV, FOX is a channel on live TV streaming services like FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV and Sling TV. Additionally, you can stream episodes the day after they air on Hulu. We’re still waiting to hear about a UK release of the show.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 cast

Cam Newton in Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 (Image credit: Pete Dadds/FOX)

Once again, the Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test cast is made up of a mixture of athletes, actors and reality stars. In season 3, the show has an NFL great in former quarterback Cam Newton, a famous actor in Stephen Baldwin and reality TV royalty in The Hills’ Brody Jenner and the very first Bachelorette, Trista Sutter. Here is a list of all the season 3 contestants:

Nathan Adrian (Olympic gold medalist in swimming)
Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects)
Alana Blanchard (professional surfer)
Landon Donovan (Olympic medalist in soccer)
Carey Hart (motorcycle racer)
Brody Jenner (The Hills)
Marion Jones (track and field star)
Ali Fedotowsky-Manno (The Bachelorette)
Cam Newton (NFL quarterback)
Kayla Nicole (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist)
Kyla Pratt (One on One)
Denise Richards (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills)
Christy Carlson Romano (Even Stevens)
Trista Sutter (The Bachelorette)
Golden Tate (NFL wide receiver)
Jordyn Wieber (Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics)

Additionally, leading the competitors through the intense exercises are directing staff (DS) agents Rudy Reyes, Mark "Billy" Billingham, Jason "Foxy" Fox and Jovon "Q" Quarles.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 3 premise

Here is an official synopsis for season 3:

"FOX’s ultimate celebrity social experiment, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, returns for a third season, enlisting a troop of household names to endure some of the harshest, most grueling challenges from the playbook of the actual Special Forces selection process. This time around, the recruits will be training in Wales, the home of British Special Forces Selection, and will endure the harsh reality of ocean warfare. The recruits must learn the art of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable as they are faced with training challenges across the country’s vast terrain of both land and sea, including a high pressure hostage rescue, a treacherous ladder crossing between steep cliffs nearly 100 ft above the sea, a boat dunk drill where they will be submerged into the frigid ocean and tasked with performing essential survival duties, a surf immersion where they will have to control their panic in an exercise that takes them to the brink of drowning, and much more. In this experiment, there are no votes and no eliminations – just survival. These celebrities, who are so used to being in the spotlight, will quickly learn the meaning of ‘no guts, no glory’ – and no glam.

"The sixteen celebrity recruits are Nathan Adrian, Stephen Baldwin, Alana Blanchard, Landon Donovan, Carey Hart, Brody Jenner, Marion Jones, Ali Fedotowsky-Manno, Cam Newton, Kayla Nicole, Kyla Pratt, Denise Richards, Christy Carlson Romano, Trista Sutter, Golden Tate and Jordyn Wieber."