''Tough as Nails'' is an American reality competition television series that premiered on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

on July 8, 2020. The show is hosted by

Phil Keoghan Philip John Keoghan ( ; born 31 May 1967) is a New Zealand television personality, best known for hosting the The Amazing Race (American TV series), American version of ''The Amazing Race'' on CBS, since its 2001 debut. He is the creator and h ...

and features contestants competing in challenges at job sites that test their toughness, with one participant eliminated in each episode. Four seasons of the series have already aired, with a fifth season renewal issued for the show in March 2022.

Format

Twelve contestants are tested in competitions at real-world job sites with tasks that test their strength, endurance, life skills and mental toughness. Contestants compete in 6-on-6 team challenges, individual competitions, and elimination battles, referred to as 'Overtime'. Unlike other reality competitions, contestants who lose elimination challenges do not leave the game and still have the opportunity to win additional prizes during team competitions. Each team competition gives the winning team $12,000 ($2,000 per member) and earns the team that challenge's Badge of Honor. The team that has collected the most Badges of Honor by the end of the season receives an additional cash bonus of $60,000 ($10,000 per member). If both teams have the same number of Badges of Honor, then they will hold a tiebreaker. In each episode, contestants compete in individual challenges in order to stay in the running for the grand prize. The lowest performers in each individual challenge are sent to Overtime, with the loser of the Overtime challenge eliminated from the individual competition (referred to in the show as 'punching out'). At the end of the season, one contestant is crowned the ''Tough as Nails'' champion and wins the grand prize of $200,000 and a

Ford Super Duty The Ford Super Duty (short for F-Series Super Duty) is a series of heavy-duty pickup trucks produced by the Ford Motor Company since the 1999 model year. Slotted above the consumer-oriented Ford F-150, the Super Duty trucks are an expansion of ...

truck.

Production

On October 3, 2019, it was announced that

had ordered ''Tough as Nails'' with a 10-episode order.

hosts the series and serves as executive producer alongside his wife, Louise. In early November, a nationwide casting search took place in the cities of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. On April 29, 2020, it was announced that the series would premiere on July 8, 2020, later making it a two-hour premiere. On August 12, 2020, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on February 10, 2021. On April 14, 2021, it was announced that the series was renewed for an additional two seasons, with the third season premiering on October 6, 2021. The series was later renewed for a fifth season on March 9, 2022. Starting with the fifth season, Canadians were eligible to apply for ''Tough as Nails''. The fourth season premiered on January 4, 2023. The first four seasons filmed in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

, and the fifth season filmed in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Joel Keller from Decider said that the team challenges were more intriguing despite the individual challenges having more at stake.

Awards and nominations

International versions

References

External links

*
Production website
* {{CBSNetwork Shows (current and upcoming) 2020 American television series debuts 2020s American reality television series English-language television shows Business-related television series Reality competition television series CBS original programming Television shows filmed in California Television shows filmed in Hamilton, Ontario