Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for all episodes of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 3 through January 15’s “Terror” and “Brotherhood.” You can catch up by streaming episodes with a Hulu subscription.
It feels like the third season of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test has barely begun airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and already a ton of celebrities have been booted. From the recruits so far, we’ve seen anticlimactic exits — like that of proud grandpa Stephen Baldwin, who was disqualified after voicing concerns about being injured — as well as scary medical withdrawals from athletes like Marion Jones-Thompson and Landon Donovan. As a fan of The Bachelor franchise, I’m devastated that we’ve also already lost both Ali Fedotowsky-Manno and Trista Sutter, but my reason is deeper than simply not getting to watch them on the show anymore.
The fact that both Trista Sutter and Ali Fedotowsky-Manno have withdrawn from the Fox competition show — and so early in the season — is so disappointing to me because of how well Bachelor Nation alumni have done historically on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. In fact, before this season, every Bachelor/Bachelorette contestant who’s been on this show has won it — Hannah Brown in Season 1, and Nick Viall and Tyler Cameron in Season 2.
I'm really bummed that the finger injury suffered by Ali Fedotowsky-Manno — who appeared on Jake Pavelka’s season of The Bachelor before becoming The Bachelorette in Season 6 — put an end to the dating franchise’s dominance on Special Forces. You could tell how disappointed she was at having to medically withdraw, which made it all the more painful for fans to watch.
She was followed shortly after by one of the franchise’s most famous contestants, Trista Sutter, who was the runner-up on Season 1 of The Bachelor and went on to become the very first lead of The Bachelorette. Trista is still married to the guy she met on that show, Ryan Sutter, and who can forget the mess he made this past summer when Trista “disappeared” to film Special Forces? Her exit came after she reportedly went into hypothermic shock after a challenge. Trista told TV Insider:
I ended up in hypothermic shock, which looked like I couldn’t lift my head up and my jaw was locking, which was really scary to me. Christy [Carlson Romano] was in the vehicle with me and was like, ‘You’re turning blue. Get on my lap.’ Her and Cam [Newton] put me on their laps and covered me with every coat and sweatshirt you could think of. They turned the heat up in the vehicle. You’re not supposed to talk to the producers in the vehicle, but it was a scary time.
That sounds actually really serious, and even in the disappointment over losing our Bachelor Nation representatives, nobody can argue that both were valid withdrawals. It just would have been so cool to continue the trend of the dating show contestants owning a competition that’s so physically and mentally demanding.
After hearing the literal torture that former Bachelorette Hannah Brown endured during the final interrogation of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, I’m not sure how anybody would volunteer to partake in the show. Sure enough, however, Season 2 came along featuring former Bachelor Nick Viall and Tyler Cameron, who was the runner-up on Hannah Brown’s season. Both made it through the interrogation that capped that season.
We’ll have to see who’s got what it takes to complete Season 3, but for Bachelor Nation, it’s a hard pill to swallow that it won’t be one our own this time around. Tune in to new episodes at 8 p.m. ET Wednesdays on Fox, and start scouting for potential future contestants when Grant Ellis’ season of The Bachelor premieres at 8 p.m. ET Monday, January 27, on ABC.
