Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 4 was thrilling from start to finish — but what happened behind the scenes?
The newly-minted winners, Shawn Johnson East and Gia Giudice, exclusively told Us Weekly what viewers didn’t see on TV, including every injury the cast sustained.
“I had a concussion. [My husband] Andrew [East] broke two ribs and possibly his nose,” Shawn, 33, exclusively recalled after the Thursday, November 20, finale. “Eric Decker slipped a disc. Mark Estes had cauliflower ear. Christie Pearce Rampone had pneumonia.”
Gia, 24, chimed in too, saying, “Jussie Smollett also had a lung infection. Eva [Marcille] quite literally almost died, which was terrifying.”
Shawn recalled during the “backwards dive” challenge, she and Brianna LaPaglia “had full body bruises.” She said there were “black and blue bruises over the fronts of our body.”
“It was crazy, like, you guys need[ed] to eat more meat. I think your iron levels were low,” Gia added, noting the bruises on Brianna’s body were “not normal.”
The pair also remembered Jessie James Decker falling on her nose and nearly breaking it.
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“Everybody had, like, huge chunks of missing skin all over their feet and heels,” Shawn revealed. “We all ripped our hands so bad.”
Despite the injuries, Shawn and Gia made it to the Thursday finale alongside Kody Brown, Brianna, 26, and Andrew, 34. After an intense simulated capture and interrogation challenge, only the three women remained.
The final challenge was a simulated burial, which Brianna pulled herself out of before Shawn and Gia were crowned this season’s winners.
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Shawn and Gia pulled back the curtain even more on their season, telling Us which meals were their favorite and the ones they actively avoided.
“Best meal [was] hard boiled eggs and strawberry jam. I could drink it,” Shawn told Us, letting out a laugh.
Gia said she “always loved lunch,” specifically beef with vegetables. The Next Gen NYC star, however, added that she “never ate dinner.”
Shawn understood Gia’s aversion to dinner, saying her “worst meal” was a carrot soup. “It was like blended carrots and these sausages that were gray and white and you couldn’t chew it or swallow it,” the Olympic gold medalist remembered.
The food wasn’t the only uncomfortable part about filming the show away from civilization. The season 4 winners recalled not being able to bring more than a few items from home with them for the entire competition.
“The only things we were allowed to take from home were, like, some toiletries. I had face lotion and, like, a toothbrush,” Shawn shared.
Gia, meanwhile, was able to get a few more items approved, including her “Aquaphor, my face lotion and my hairbrush.”
She teased that the rest of the cast, including Shawn, came to her bin. “I think I used all of your stuff, yeah, [I didn’t] have a brush,” Shawn told Gia.
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Luckily for the women, the longest they ever went without a shower was two days.
After Gia told Us, “I showered every day,” Shawn reminded her that the finale was two days of nonstop challenges, so no one got a shower.
“OK, interrogation [day] was the longest we went without a shower because … we literally couldn’t,” Gia clarified.
Once Shawn and Gia won the show, they both said the producers brought them a delicious treat.
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“Production gave me four ice cream bars, and I just was housing ice cream,” Shawn fondly remembered.
Gia was surprised Shawn got ice cream, revealing that it wasn’t offered to her. “I had, like, a pasta salad, and I think I had a Snickers bar, but not ice cream,” the Bravo star told Us. “I would have loved ice cream.”
Shawn said the frozen dessert was “great” but seeing Andrew shortly after the fact was even better.
“They held Andrew [back] instead of sending him straight home. So I got to be with Andrew,” she gushed.
Gia also had a sweet moment with family, telling Us she called her parents, The Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Teresa Giudice and Joe Giudice, before heading home.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is streaming on Hulu and FOX One.
