Special Forces Season 5 cast details are now confirmed, with 15 celebrities set to enter a demanding military-style challenge in Malaysia when Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test returns to FOX on September 24, 2026.
FOX announced the complete Season 5 lineup on July 15, ending speculation about which celebrities would participate. The new group includes actors, athletes, reality personalities, a social-media creator and former politician George Santos.
The fifth season will move the celebrity recruits into the Malaysian jungle for a series of physically and mentally demanding exercises inspired by real Special Forces selection techniques. FOX has confirmed challenges involving an underground bunker, a 300-foot-high supply retrieval and exposure to chemical gas.
The season will premiere Thursday, September 24, from 9 to 10 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. New episodes will be available on Hulu the following day.
Special Forces Season 5 cast: Full lineup
The Season 5 cast contains 15 celebrity recruits. FOX’s official announcement identifies each participant and their professional background.
| Celebrity | Known for |
|---|---|
| Matt Barnes | NBA champion and podcaster |
| Alycia Baumgardner | World champion boxer |
| Candace Cameron Bure | Actress |
| David Charvet | Entrepreneur and actor |
| Brandi Glanville | TV personality |
| Collin Gosselin | Former TV personality |
| Oliver Hudson | Actor |
| LeSean McCoy | Super Bowl champion |
| Maxim Naumov | Olympic figure skater |
| Ruby Rose | Actor |
| George Santos | Former politician |
| Hannah Stocking | Comedian |
| Breana Tiesi | TV personality |
| Alexia Umansky | TV personality |
| Mauricio Umansky | TV personality |
FOX’s official cast announcement confirms all 15 names and describes the season as a new group of celebrity recruits entering the demanding experiment.
The lineup gives Season 5 a broad mix of entertainment and sports backgrounds. Several contestants have professional experience in high-level athletics, while others are better known for television, film, social media or reality programming.
Matt Barnes enters the competition
Matt Barnes is among the most prominent athletes in the new cast. The former NBA player is identified by FOX as an NBA champion and podcaster.
Barnes brings professional basketball experience to a competition built around endurance, physical pressure and mental resilience. His background gives him years of exposure to elite athletic competition, but the Malaysian jungle presents a very different test.
The show’s challenges do not simply measure conventional sports ability. Recruits must adapt to unfamiliar environments while following demanding instructions from the directing staff.
Barnes is therefore entering the season with an established athletic background but without an obvious shortcut through the military-inspired exercises.
Alycia Baumgardner brings boxing experience
World champion boxer Alycia Baumgardner is another major athlete joining the cast.
Professional boxing requires conditioning, discipline and the ability to perform under pressure. However, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test places recruits in situations that require much more than fighting ability.
The Season 5 environment will include jungle terrain and physically demanding tasks designed around military-style selection exercises.
Baumgardner’s presence gives the cast another elite athlete with experience performing under intense physical and psychological pressure.
Candace Cameron Bure joins Season 5
Candace Cameron Bure is one of the best-known television names in the Season 5 lineup.
The actress is widely recognized for her long television career, including her role as D.J. Tanner on Full House and later appearances in the show’s sequel series Fuller House. She is also known for her work in television movies and family entertainment.
Her appearance on Special Forces places her in a setting far removed from the scripted television environment that made her a familiar face to American audiences.
Recent promotional footage has already provided viewers with a glimpse of the physical demands facing Bure and her fellow recruits. Entertainment Weekly reported on a Season 5 sneak peek showing Bure becoming physically overwhelmed during a jungle challenge.
That footage has increased interest in how she and the other celebrities will respond once the season begins.
David Charvet is part of the new recruit group
David Charvet also joins the Season 5 cast.
FOX identifies Charvet as an entrepreneur and actor. American television viewers may recognize him from his work on Baywatch and Melrose Place.
His previous screen career is dramatically different from the environment awaiting him in Malaysia. Season 5 will require recruits to operate in difficult jungle conditions rather than controlled television or film settings.
The cast announcement confirms Charvet as one of the 15 recruits entering the program.
Brandi Glanville returns to reality television in a new setting
Brandi Glanville is another familiar reality television personality entering the competition.
Glanville is best known for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and other reality television appearances. Her participation adds another reality-TV veteran to a cast that spans several different entertainment categories.
Season 5 will test contestants without the conventional structure of a vote-based reality competition. Instead, participants must continue completing the exercises while dealing with the physical and psychological demands imposed by the directing staff.
That format makes Glanville’s appearance different from a typical reality-TV role.
Collin Gosselin makes his television return
Collin Gosselin is another name generating attention around the Season 5 cast.
Gosselin became known to television audiences through Jon & Kate Plus 8 and its related programming. His participation in Special Forces represents a return to reality television after years away from the spotlight.
Gosselin himself confirmed his involvement through social media after FOX announced the cast. E! reported that he shared his excitement about taking on the challenges of the series.
His inclusion also gives Season 5 a contestant whose public identity was established during childhood television years.
Oliver Hudson joins the celebrity recruits
Actor Oliver Hudson is also entering the Malaysian jungle.
Hudson has appeared in numerous television and film productions and is known for roles in series including Rules of Engagement and Nashville.
His Season 5 participation adds another experienced television actor to the cast. Like the other recruits, he will have to leave the normal comforts associated with entertainment production and confront the physical conditions of the course.
FOX lists Hudson among the 15 confirmed celebrity recruits for the fifth season.
LeSean McCoy brings NFL experience
Former NFL star LeSean McCoy is one of the most experienced professional athletes in the Season 5 lineup.
McCoy won two Super Bowl championships during his NFL career and established himself as a standout running back.
Football players routinely train for speed, strength, endurance and physical contact. Still, the challenges in Special Forces require contestants to apply those qualities in unfamiliar ways.
McCoy will face jungle conditions rather than an NFL field, with exercises that test coordination, stamina, decision-making and the ability to keep moving under pressure.
Maxim Naumov represents figure skating
Olympic figure skater Maxim Naumov brings a different type of athletic background to Season 5.
Figure skating demands balance, coordination, flexibility, conditioning and concentration. Naumov’s Olympic experience means he is accustomed to performing at an elite level under intense scrutiny.
The Malaysian jungle, however, creates a completely different athletic environment.
Season 5’s physical challenges will take recruits across unpredictable terrain, making balance and body control useful while also requiring endurance and adaptability.
Ruby Rose joins the Season 5 cast
Actor Ruby Rose is another major entertainment name participating in the new season.
Rose is known internationally for roles including Batwoman in the television series Batwoman, as well as appearances in films and television productions.
Her inclusion adds an international entertainment profile to a cast already featuring numerous American television personalities and athletes.
Rose will be among the 15 recruits attempting to complete the military-inspired exercises in Malaysia. FOX confirmed her participation as part of its July 15 announcement.
George Santos becomes one of the season’s most talked-about recruits
Former politician George Santos is perhaps the most unexpected name in the Season 5 cast.
FOX identifies Santos as a former politician. His appearance has already attracted significant attention because of his background in U.S. politics rather than entertainment or professional athletics.
Santos also publicly acknowledged his participation after the cast announcement, adding another layer of interest around his appearance.
His participation demonstrates the broad range of people FOX has selected for the fifth season. The cast does not consist solely of traditional entertainment celebrities or athletes.
Hannah Stocking joins the lineup
Comedian and social-media personality Hannah Stocking is also heading into the competition.
Stocking has built a large audience through online comedy and entertainment content. Her participation introduces a digital-media personality into a season otherwise populated by actors, athletes and reality television figures.
The physical nature of the program will require Stocking to adapt to an environment far removed from the controlled setting of online entertainment production.
FOX officially lists her among the 15 recruits announced for Season 5.
Breana Tiesi joins from the reality television world
Breana Tiesi is another reality television personality competing in Season 5.
Tiesi is known for her appearances on Selling Sunset and her work in the entertainment and modeling space.
Her participation adds to the season’s strong reality-TV presence. She will now face exercises designed to challenge recruits physically and mentally rather than through social dynamics or traditional competition mechanics.
The cast announcement confirms Tiesi as one of the 15 recruits traveling to Malaysia for the season’s military-style tests.
Alexia and Mauricio Umansky compete together
Season 5 also features a family pairing.
Alexia Umansky and her father, Mauricio Umansky, are both part of the cast. Alexia is known from Buying Beverly Hills, while Mauricio Umansky is a real estate executive and television personality who has appeared in the same reality-TV universe.
Their participation gives the season a father-daughter dynamic that could make their experience particularly distinctive.
Both names appear in FOX’s official list of 15 recruits.
Having two family members in the same demanding environment also means viewers will be able to see how each responds independently to the same challenges.
Where Season 5 was filmed
The fifth season moves the recruits to Malaysia.
FOX describes the location as a jungle environment that will force participants to adapt to uncomfortable conditions and unpredictable terrain.
That setting represents a significant shift from previous seasons, which placed recruits in different environments designed around specific forms of military training.
The Malaysian jungle gives the fifth season a clear identity. Instead of relying primarily on cold-weather or coastal conditions, the new group must deal with heat, dense terrain and jungle warfare exercises.
Recent promotional footage has already shown contestants dealing with mud, difficult terrain and intense physical situations.
What challenges will the Season 5 cast face?
FOX has confirmed several of the exercises planned for the new season.
The recruits will encounter:
- A high-pressure search inside an underground bunker
- A mission to locate crucial military weapons
- A supply-load retrieval while suspended 300 feet above the jungle floor
- Chemical-gas exposure while retrieving coordinates connected to an enemy vessel
- Additional jungle warfare exercises
- Physically and psychologically demanding selection-style tests
The challenges are designed to replicate aspects of the pressure associated with Special Forces selection rather than operate like ordinary television games.
The promotional footage released ahead of the premiere has already shown the recruits facing mud, heights and difficult jungle conditions.
Who leads the Season 5 recruits?
The directing staff remains one of the defining elements of the series.
Season 5 is led by former Special Forces operatives Rudy Reyes, Mark “Billy” Billingham, Jason “Foxy” Fox and Jovon “Q” Quarles.
They are responsible for putting the celebrity recruits through the demanding exercises and evaluating how they respond.
The directing staff does not simply observe the contestants. Their role is central to the training environment, making the relationship between recruits and instructors an important part of the series.
There are no traditional eliminations
One of the most important facts about Season 5 is the format.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test does not use public voting or standard weekly eliminations. Instead, the recruits must survive the course and continue participating for as long as they can.
Participants can leave voluntarily, become unable to continue for medical reasons, fail required tasks or be removed by the directing staff.
That structure changes the meaning of success. Contestants are not competing for votes from viewers or trying to win individual immunity.
Their objective is simply to endure the training.
When does Special Forces Season 5 premiere?
FOX has officially scheduled Season 5 for Thursday, September 24, 2026.
The premiere will air from 9 to 10 p.m. ET/PT on FOX. Episodes will then become available on Hulu the following day.
As of August 24, 2026, the premiere has not yet taken place. The complete celebrity cast has been officially announced, while promotional material has begun giving viewers a closer look at what awaits the recruits.
The latest previews indicate that the Malaysian jungle will provide one of the most demanding environments the show has used.
What the confirmed cast means for Season 5
The Season 5 lineup stands out because of its range.
There are elite athletes such as Barnes, Baumgardner, McCoy and Naumov. The entertainment contingent includes Bure, Charvet, Hudson and Rose. Reality television contributes Glanville, Gosselin, Tiesi and the Umanskys.
Stocking represents the social-media and comedy side of the lineup, while Santos arrives from politics.
That mix gives the fifth season a notably varied group of recruits. Each contestant enters with a different professional background, but the jungle course places everyone under the same basic conditions.
The result is a season built around how celebrities respond when their usual advantages no longer matter.
Latest Special Forces Season 5 cast update
The most current confirmed information is straightforward: FOX has announced all 15 Season 5 recruits, the production has been set in Malaysia, and the premiere date is September 24, 2026.
No additional contestants have been officially added to the announced lineup. There is also no confirmed information that changes the 15-person cast announced by FOX.
Promotional footage released in August has provided more insight into the challenges, including jungle warfare scenarios and difficult physical exercises.
For viewers searching for the Special Forces Season 5 cast, the confirmed lineup remains:
- Matt Barnes
- Alycia Baumgardner
- Candace Cameron Bure
- David Charvet
- Brandi Glanville
- Collin Gosselin
- Oliver Hudson
- LeSean McCoy
- Maxim Naumov
- Ruby Rose
- George Santos
- Hannah Stocking
- Breana Tiesi
- Alexia Umansky
- Mauricio Umansky
With the cast confirmed and the premiere approaching, attention is now shifting from who will participate to how many recruits can withstand the Malaysian jungle.
Which Season 5 recruit are you most interested in watching, and who do you think will handle the jungle challenges best? Share your thoughts and stay tuned for the latest confirmed updates.