JoJo Siwa and Tyler Cameron didn’t hold anything back while competing on “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
In an exclusive new interview with Page Six, the fan-favorite contestants reflected on their most viral moments from Season 2 of the hit Fox series.
Siwa and Cameron – along with 12 other celebrity “recruits” including Nick Viall, Tara Reid, Tom Sandoval, Savannah Chrisley and Jack Osbourne – were sent to New Zealand to undergo grueling challenges based on the actual Special Forces selection process.
One of the toughest tests required the stars to race against each other in teams and carry 220-pound boats through terrain and water, all while listening to demands from Directing Staff (DS) agents Rudy Reyes, Mark “Billy” Billingham, Jason “Foxy” Fox and Jovon “Q” Quarles.
Cameron, 30, served as one of the MVPs that day. However, the challenge was so extreme that the “Bachelorette” alum started projectile vomiting on camera as soon as it wrapped.
“Oh, everyone loved it! And I honestly loved it,” the reality star confessed, telling us he went back to the rest of cast “bragging” about getting so much “good” material.
“I was like, ‘This is gonna be hilarious!’ I mean, they [the DS agents] had me standing upright, projectile puking. I was like, ‘Y’all are gonna crack up when you see this one.’”
Despite the not-so-glamorous moment making it to air for the world to see, the Bachelor Nation heartthrob assured us that he wasn’t at all embarrassed by it – or any of his other “vulnerable” moments caught on camera.
“As a guy, I always grew up like, ‘Hide your feelings, hide that,’ you know what I mean? So being vulnerable is something I’ve really learned in the last few years,” he explained, adding that he thinks it’s “important” for people to share what they’re going through.
“When you show what you’re going through … [people] can relate to you. They can hear your story. They can find comfort,” he continued.
“I’ve gotten so many messages [from fans] like, ‘I’m going through this,’ and I reach out and even talk back to some of them. I think it’s one of the most special things about this show.”
Meanwhile, in another physically draining challenge, Siwa, 20, helped carry her team – literally – by volunteering to prop Sandoval, 41, over her shoulders after Viall, 43, lost the strength to do it.
The viral moment received plenty of praise from fans online, who wrote things like, “JoJo carrying Tom Sandoval could be THE greatest moment of reality tv thus far,” “She’s a badass!!” and “Shes amazing. I have new respect for her 😍.”
Reflecting back on that moment, Siwa told us it was up to only her, Viall, Osbourne and Olympic speed skater Erin Jackson to assist Sandoval in the challenge.
“Nick started with Tom and at some point he was like, ‘Guys, I can’t carry him anymore.’ So I was like, ‘Alright, Erin ain’t doing it, Jack ain’t doing it … alright, kid, here we go!’” the “Dance Moms” alum recalled.
“I scooped him up and, truthfully, I was like, ‘Oh, s–t, he’s a little bit heavier than I thought he was gonna be,’” she added.
“[But] I mean, I can’t take credit. I carried him for like three minutes just to give Nick a little bit of a break, but I’m pretty proud of that three minutes!”
At the time Season 2 of “Special Forces” was filming, Sandoval was deep into the fallout from his highly publicized affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, dubbed Scandoval. The “Vanderpump Rules” star was secretly hooking up with his co-star while still in a relationship with his now-ex, Ariana Madix.
“I didn’t know what was going on [but] I honestly, in the last three days, have become obsessed. Not even with ‘Vanderpump Rules’ as a show, but with the reunion, because I knew nothing about this,” Siwa said, admitting she didn’t even know who Sandoval was when filming for “Special Forces” began.
“So I got to just know Tom as Tom. And the things that bugged the world about Tom weren’t the things that bugged me. The things that bugged me was him spitting his nails on my bed every single night,” she continued, bursting into laughter over the memory.
In one of his own confessionals, Sandoval stated that he wanted to do “Special Forces” because he felt like he “needed to punish” himself for all his wrongdoing. So, does the reality star feel like he’s finally redeemed himself?
“I think so. You can’t come on this show and not learn something about yourself, or learn something you can take forward in life. He was so great at immersing himself into what we were doing,” Cameron shared.
“If you look at his face, he’s always like locked in. Everyone that watched him was like, ‘Why is he so intense?’ But he just gives a hundred percent to whatever’s in front of him.”
Cameron noted, however, that quality could be for both the better and the worst for Sandoval, whom he said “operates” in his own world.
“Sometimes I was like, ‘Tom, pull it back. We’re good, we got it figured out,’” he recalled of some of their conversations. “But he wanted to give it his all and he wanted to succeed. And you can never fault someone who wants to try their hardest.”
The Season 2 finale of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” airs Monday, Nov. 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
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