Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/FOX
It pains me to say that the most hated man on reality television, Tom Sandoval, has a pretty good shot at winning this season of Special Forces—maybe even more than his aggrieved ex, Ariana Madix, has at the Mirrorball Trophy on Dancing With the Stars. For one thing, this man has had a (deservedly) tough year and desperately needs a W. Second, if you watch Vanderpump Rules, you know that Sandoval works out a ton and has ninja-level agility. He was also just having an affair with a 28 year old, so he’s probably in the greatest shape of his life.
But before Sandoval (maybe) makes it to the finish line, he has to do what he really came to Special Forces to do: paint a sob story about his role in Scandoval. On tonight’s episode, the Tom Tom owner opened up about his breakup with Madix being publicized everywhere, including on CNN. Unsurprisingly, none of his fellow competitors, all dealing with excruciatingly sore body parts and near-frostbite, really seemed to care.
“It was a pretty juicy fucking scandal,” Sandoval tells his contestants after their first challenge. “If you opened up Instagram, you would’ve seen me [and] Ariana every day. People were messaging me paragraphs of vicious—like, so visceral—hatred.”