“I don’t care how rich or famous they are,” says Jason Fox. “They’ve entered our world, and they will play by our rules.”
In the new reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT beginning Jan. 4 on FOX), 16 celebrities head to the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, where Fox and a team of former commandos put them through the same mentally and physically grueling training that elite Special Forces soldiers endure.
Facing brutal heat and treacherous terrain, the celebs dive from a helicopter into the Red Sea, escape a submerged Humvee, drive through an explosive urban combat zone and tackle other hellish tasks.
There’s no prize money at the end. So why put themselves through this? “The reason why I wanted to go was to really push myself to the limit, learn more about who I am, and really learn myself,” says former NBA star Dwight Howard. “I wanted to be broken down and basically put back together.”
Joining Howard as recruits are former NFL player Danny Amendola; Melanie Brown MBE (a.k.a. Mel B) of the Spice Girls; former Bachelorette Hannah Brown; chef Tyler Florence; television personality Kate Gosselin; singer Montell Jordan; freeskier Gus Kenworthy; Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin; Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd; actress Beverley Mitchell; Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Kenya Moore; former MLB player Mike Piazza; Dr. Drew Pinsky; former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci; and actress and singer-songwriter Jamie Lynn Spears.