‘Special Forces’ Season 5 Cast: Who Went Home and All 15 Recruits

• Brandi Glanville was the first recruit out of Special Forces Season 5, medically withdrawn after hurting her sternum on the premiere’s helicopter jump.
• Fifteen celebrities started in the Malaysian jungle, including George Santos, Ruby Rose, Candace Cameron Bure, Oliver Hudson and Mauricio Umansky with his daughter Alexia.
• New episodes air Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox and stream the next day on Hulu.

One down on Day 1. Brandi Glanville, 53, was the first recruit to leave Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test Season 5, pulled by the medic after the opening jump of the premiere on Thursday (Sept. 24).

Fourteen celebrities are still in the Malaysian jungle, among them former congressman George Santos, who used his first night on Fox to talk about his fraud case.

Who went home on ‘Special Forces’ Season 5?

Glanville, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The first task had recruits fall backward out of a hovering helicopter into a lake, arms crossed over the chest. Glanville, who said before the jump that she hates heights and water, came up in pain.

“It’s my sternum,” she told the Directing Staff, the ex-special forces instructors who run the course. It hurt to breathe. The medic examined her and ruled she could not go on.

“I told my kids I wouldn’t be the first one to leave,” she said on the show. A day later she told Entertainment Tonight the experience made her feel “alive again,” and joked that she signed on “for the money, obviously.”

How do recruits leave ‘Special Forces’?

There are no votes and no eliminations by points. A recruit leaves one of two ways: by quitting, a voluntary withdrawal that means handing back the armband with their number, or when the Directing Staff or the medics pull them, as happened to Glanville.

Whoever is still standing at the final task passes the course. The instructors are Rudy Reyes, Jason Fox, Mark “Billy” Billingham and Jovon “Q” Quarles.

Who is in the ‘Special Forces’ Season 5 cast?

Fifteen recruits started. The status column is updated after every episode.

Glanville told Entertainment Tonight she went in “pretty blind,” having only heard a rumor that Umansky, who separated from her former Housewives co-star Kyle Richards in 2023, would be there. She said she had time to say hello before she was gone.

What did George Santos say on ‘Special Forces’?

He talked about the lies. Santos, 38, was expelled from the House in December 2023, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and was sentenced in April 2025 to 87 months in prison. President Trump commuted the sentence in October 2025.

“At one point, I wanted to get caught because it was just so much to carry a lie,” he told the instructors. “I will forever be grateful to President Trump for giving me a second chance to go back to my family.”

At Fox’s press day he told Entertainment Tonight the show was “an entire diva down experience,” and credited Oliver Hudson with fishing him out of the water.

What did Oliver Hudson and Ruby Rose say?

Oliver Hudson, 50, opened up about his mother, Goldie Hawn. “My mother’s an icon, so a part of me feels like I have to accomplish something greater for them to be truly proud of me,” he said in a confessional.

Ruby Rose, 40, talked about the 2019 on-set injury that ended her run on Batwoman. “There was no bouncing back,” she said, adding that it cost her about four years.

When is ‘Special Forces’ on?

Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox, with each episode streaming the next day on Hulu. Last season ran nine episodes. This page is updated after every episode with who went home.

More reality TV: who went home on Survivor 51, who got eliminated on Dancing With the Stars and the Season 6 cast of The Traitors. Everything else is in TV & Reality.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Season 5 premiere, Fox, Sept. 24, 2026; Brandi Glanville and George Santos to Entertainment Tonight (Sept. 2026). Cast list as reported by TVLine (Ryan Schwartz); premiere recap and quotes also reported by TV Insider and MEAWW (Gira Rathod); Oliver Hudson’s and Ruby Rose’s comments as reported by People and Yahoo Entertainment; streaming schedule per The Tab (Sydney Boyd). George Santos’ case: U.S. Department of Justice (plea and sentence) and the White House (commutation), as reported by the Associated Press. Photos: Entertainment Tonight (including Fox footage from the premiere) and Team Coco (Conan, 2015).