Tom Sandoval isn’t sugarcoating what Brittany Cartwright is walking into on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
In comments about Cartwright joining the Fox competition, Sandoval — who previously went through the show himself — said her run is going to be “really tough,” describing the experience as one of the hardest things he’s ever done. He emphasized the show’s basic philosophy: once you’re already spent, the directing staff keeps pushing you further, past what most people think is their limit.
Sandoval’s perspective carries weight because he’s not reacting as a casual viewer. He’s speaking as someone who’s been on the course, dealt with the sleep deprivation, the relentless pace, and the pressure-cooker dynamic that comes from being evaluated in front of a camera while ex-special operations instructors control every variable.
Cartwright, best known from Vanderpump Rules and later The Valley, signed on for Special Forces Season 4, which took the recruits to Morocco for the show’s military-style selection course. On paper, it’s a reality-TV stunt.
In practice, the show markets itself as a controlled environment built to strip away comfort fast — with tasks that punish hesitation and reward mental grit as much as physical conditioning.
For Cartwright, the timing also matters. In the Season 4 premiere coverage, she framed the decision as personal — a way to challenge herself after a difficult year, including the breakup and divorce process with Jax Taylor (she filed in August 2024, per PEOPLE). She also said he warned her she “was not gonna make it far,” which she took as motivation to prove doubters wrong.
But the gap between motivation and execution is exactly what Sandoval was pointing at. His warning wasn’t about Cartwright’s character; it was about the structure of the show. Special Forces doesn’t give you time to “build into it.” It hits immediately with fear-management and endurance work — the kind of stuff that exposes whether someone can regulate panic, recover quickly, and keep moving even when their body is done.
And in Cartwright’s case, the course proved unforgiving right away. In the premiere recap, she struggled through early challenges (including a helicopter-related task that triggered her fear of heights) and then hit a wall during a heavy-haul endurance evolution. She ultimately withdrew on the first day. E! also lists her Season 4 status as “Quit Day 1.”
That outcome doesn’t make Sandoval “right” in a smug way — it reinforces the core truth behind his quote: the show is designed so that confidence and TV toughness mean almost nothing once the course starts. If you aren’t conditioned for sustained stress (physically and mentally), you find out fast.
It’s also worth noting that Cartwright didn’t try to spin the exit into a victory lap. In the same reporting, she talked about the embarrassment of leaving first — and about the silver lining of getting back to her son.
That combination — wanting to prove something, then confronting a hard limit in public — is basically the show’s whole pitch.
For Fox, Season 4 has leaned into recognizable reality names and built-in relationships in the cast, but the formula remains the same: you either adapt to discomfort immediately, or you’re out. And Sandoval’s “really tough” prediction is less a read on Brittany and more a reminder of what Special Forces reliably does to people who underestimate it.
