Tough as Nails, CBS’s new actuality competitors present from The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, is novel for just a few causes. For starters, in contrast to some energy and endurance exhibits that forged athletes and gymnasium rats, this one highlights first responders, veterans, and on a regular basis Individuals. The present has contestants replicate real-world challenges, like laying railroad track – and on this one, no one will get eradicated. The 12 contestants, together with a welder, a firefighter, a farmer, a roofer, a deputy sheriff, and a Marine Corps veteran, compete in groups and declare a winner on the finish. One other approach Powerful as Nails units itself aside? It is the one actuality competitors that has invited me, a desk employee who sits on his bum for 60 p.c of a mean day, to see if I am as robust as nails.
This was pre-COVID, clearly, on a heat day in downtown Los Angeles so many months in the past now it looks like it occurred in an alternate dimension. (I am instructed it was February.) I had no concept what to anticipate however figured since I am fairly match from hitting the gymnasium (keep in mind these?), operating, and doing fairly intense hourlong yoga periods twice every week, maintaining with no matter problem they threw my approach could not be that arduous, proper? Improper.
The Amazing Race’s Phil Keoghan Introduces His New Competition Show Tough As Nails
I realized upon arrival that the problem I might be participating in was a lineman drill — which I might by no means even identified was a factor prior to now. A lineman, I quickly realized, is a type of courageous and expert individuals who toil atop terrifyingly tall poles to maintain electrical energy flowing correctly. The drill required us to strap right into a harness, scale the wood pole, and rescue a dummy on the prime by chopping him free and decreasing him all the way down to security; the particular person with the quickest time would win. I watched an teacher present a number of of the present’s contributors — together with at least two people decades older than me, in their 60s – how to do that, and so they did pretty simply. Simply watching them appeared tiring, however I satisfied myself, “I obtained this.”
And I did, form of, at first. As you may see within the video above, I obtained off to a good begin, hoisting myself up the pole effectively. However this problem, as with all of the duties on Powerful as Nails, required far more than energy or an preliminary gust of willpower. It takes coordination to straddle your legs the best approach in order that spikes contained in the boots provide the leverage you must advance. However you additionally want focus, longevity, endurance, and, most of all, focus. As Phil Keoghan says in the first episode and all through the collection, psychological toughness is de facto the factor that unlocks and maintains bodily energy. You do not have to pressure too onerous to see the place I began whining and complaining (and cursing out the dummy for getting himself on this mess), however in my protection, whining, complaining, and cursing are thought-about helpful abilities on the web.
What did I be taught from the expertise? Effectively, I very a lot choose working at a desk, indoors, for one. However I additionally discovered a larger appreciation for the individuals who maintain America afloat with their fingers. Within the months since we shot this, the time period “important employee” has helped many people see how a lot we owe frontline staff, together with people like linemen, with out whom I’d not have wi-fi or TV exhibits to jot down about. I can solely hope that subsequent time I am about to whine about how onerous my job is, I consider them and keep in mind what a tricky job actually seems like. I positive keep in mind the way it felt.
Powerful As Nails airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on CBS.
TV Information Sr. Editor Malcolm Venable, Powerful as Nails