Former politician George Santos has defended his participation on the upcoming season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
“To all the haters talking about me being fat or @BrandiGlanville’s skin and wishing ill on @candacecbure amongst the other mean horrible things in the comment section, you could not walk a day in any of our shoes,” Santos, 37, wrote via X on Wednesday, July 15, addressing his casting alongside Glanville, 53, amid her ongoing mysterious health issues and Cameron Bure, 50, who is often criticized for her staunch Christian beliefs.
He added, “We are humans, we put ourselves out there and we have thick skin. Now, I can handle banter but vicious vile, mean comments are uncalled for. Go step on grass and then watch us all thrive taking on an insane challenge and kicking ass!”
Fox announced earlier on Wednesday that Santos, Glanville and Cameron Bure were among the season 5 recruits for a new course set in Malaysia. The rest of the casting lineup includes Collin Gosselin, Bre Tiesi, Matt Barnes, Oliver Hudson and father-daughter pair Mauricio and Alexia Umansky.
On Special Forces, a pack of celebrities aim to complete “selection” in a military-style training camp led by army veterans.
“Everybody comes on the show for a reason. On day one, we look at people and say, in [our] own minds, ‘Why are you here?’ But actually, we know why you’re here,” Directing Staff instructor Billy Billingham exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2025. “You are here because you’ve lost direction. You need to re-challenge yourself. You wanna be brought back to reality because that’s what this show does.”
In addition to running a series of military-style drills, the DS instructors also interrogate the celebrities one-on-one.
“Before we do the mirror room, even [if it’s only been 12 hours], you’ve already put through a phase of deprivation,” Billingham, 61, told Us. “When you’re tired, you’re hungry, you don’t care anymore. You’re more open. Now there’s something about that, what we call the mirror room. I don’t know why it is — and we are not psychologists and we have no idea what that story’s gonna be right out of that person’s mouth.”
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According to Billingham, DS staff members are not given a heads up about the cast list or the personal anecdotes that they share on the reality TV show.
“We have no idea what is gonna come out of their mouth, and for us, we have to play the poker face because some of it’s quite heart-wrenching,” Billingham said. “We’re emotional people as well, and we have to [stay strong]. I think something about that mirror room — when they walk in, it’s intimidating. They’re disorientated, they’re tired, they’re already feeling a little bit sad and down. They just wanna get something off the chest. But what I do love about it is once they’ve done that.”
For Santos, he will tackle the Special Forces course nearly one year after his prison sentence was commuted. The former New York congressman was convicted of fraud and identity theft in April 2025. After Santos served just 84 days of his seven-year sentence, President Donald Trump signed a commutation that facilitated his immediate release.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test premieres Thursday, September 24, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox and streams the next day on Hulu.
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