Former Disney star Christy Carlson Romano was eliminated from Fox's 'Special Forces' in a surprising turn of events. While she was prepared for the challenges, she was unprepared for agent Billy Billingham's decision to eliminate her due to her perceived 'liability' during a demanding trek. Carlson Romano expressed shock and disbelief at her elimination, particularly given her mindset of not quitting. She reflected on the show's unique elimination process, contrasting it with traditional reality shows and acknowledging the DS's expertise in assessing their recruits' capabilities.
Christy Carlson Romano was completely unprepared for her exit from Special Forces. When agent Billy Billingham eliminated her from the Fox series on January 29th, she was shocked. 'When my husband, who's a marine veteran, was training me, he basically said, 'You can go slow, but keep going. Don't quit.' The rules of this show changed,' Carlson Romano began during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly.
'I still love the show, but I think that the rules this season are a bit different because I've checked with castmates from different seasons, and this third season, I really do feel like it was a bigger, badder, bolder season than the other seasons.” On Special Forces, there are no traditional reality show eliminations. Contestants typically stay until they disobey orders, quit, or are medically disqualified. Carlson Romano told Us that she “anticipated never quitting” and hoped to win based on her mindset. However, on Wednesday’s episode, Billingham declared her a “liability” as she struggled to keep up during an uphill trek. “My husband said, ‘Just stack the days,’” she continued. “And I really thought I could go slower. Not that I wouldn't keep pushing myself because I was clearly pushing myself, but I just didn't think he would take my number. I was shocked that he took my number. I thought in the actual military, even if I was a liability, I feel like you can always build muscles. You can't build a mindset of somebody who doesn't want to quit.” Carlson Romano added, “I should say I love Billy. I respect all the DS so much and they know I do. But I was shocked.” When Us caught up with Billingham and Rudy Reyes earlier this month, they explained that they “watch every single person” on the show “very closely” and feel confident they know when it’s time for them to leave. 'As soon as we realize they've got out of this what they need, we will kind of encourage them to leave, we’ll put more pressure on them,' Billingham explained. 'So they don't get hurt and they don't go too far, we'll take their armband. We monitor it very closely. It's all based on experience.' Us filled Carlson Romano in on their insight. “This is their course, this is their world, and we're just living in it,” she replied. “And you have to relinquish control over everything. And it's nothing like the actual military, but it is similar in that when you commit to the military, your body is the government’s. As much as I was saying that autonomy was something that I was struggling with, I also was kind of at war with myself for being the perfectionist and being the people pleaser and just trying to do my best.” Circling back to the hill that Carlson Romano “died on,” she recalled fellow Disney alum Kyla Pratt opting out before the DS turned their attention to her. 'I think that as soon as I heard Kyla quit behind me, you could probably see a look on my face, like, 'F---, they're going to come for me now,'' she said. 'I was like, ‘Now they're going to come for me and I have to be ready for them to say really mean things.’ They were calling me a liability, they were calling me weak. I was like, 'That's OK. Tune it out, keep going.' I would envision my husband standing next to the DS telling me to keep going, and that kind of counteracted that. But day eight, you're calorically also really starving. You're meant to die out. And I'm already kind of pretty thin and I have a pretty fast metabolism. And I was not eating, I was really stressed out. So I do think that that could have also been a part of it.' The week prior, Carlson Romano pushed through a task that required her to conquer her biggest fear — being buried alive. 'They ask you what your greatest fear is, so when they put me in the coffin, I was like, 'This is my own doing. ... the producers are slick,'' she said. 'I thought that, maybe, I would be more relaxed when I got in there, but something about the way that the DS were reacting to it made me scared. Sometimes I would look at the DS and try to gauge how serious what we were doing was, and I think that they were kind of making it seem, like, this is a very serious thing to try to think about those who have fallen. ... They did cut out me singing the Bluey theme song for about 10 minutes straight. On top of that, I went into a full method acting and started to project myself back home making bacon and cinnamon rolls for my girls. ... I think it might've been a little too disturbing for television.' The other aspect of the show is the mirror room, where the recruits get vulnerable with the DS. During her interrogation, Carlson Romano spoke about past issues with her mother, who was her manager during her Disney days. The twosome didn’t speak for a year over financial disagreements. 'My mom is supposed to come over tonight and watch this episode with me,' the Even Stevens alum told Us, adding that she sent her mother a clip of what will air
SPECIAL FORCES CHRISTY CARLSON ROMANO FOX REALITY SHOW ELIMINATION MILITARY TRAINING DISNEY STAR INTERVIEW BILLY BILLINGHAM RUDEY REYES
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