CBS, Tough Mudder expand partnership in new deal, introduce extreme event

Tough Mudder, the popular obstacle racing series rooted in 10-mile mud runs, will introduce a more intense ---- albeit shorter and less stain-inducing --- event Thursday as part of an expanded partnership with CBS. 

Tough Mudder X will be a one-mile race that blends several of the obstacles familiar to the estimated three million Tough Mudder participants over the last seven years with feats of strength exercises. The new competition, unlike other Tough Mudder events, is invite-only and will air on CBS in two parts in late summer. 

“I think this competition will showcase the sport of obstacle racing in a tremendous new way,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming at CBS Sports, told Paste BN Sports. “Tough Mudder and the Toughest Mudder have more cooperation among the athletes. They work together and share their experiences.”

The 8-hour Toughest Mudder grew out of the World’s Toughest Mudder, the season-ending 24-hour race held outside Las Vegas in recent years. As part of the new agreement between CBS and Tough Mudder, the Toughest Mudders will now be broadcast on CBS starting July 22. 

The four Toughest Mudder broadcasts were originally all scheduled to air on CBS Sports Net when the original deal was announced in August. 

The preliminaries for Tough Mudder X, which will take place in Minnesota in July, will air on CBS on Aug. 27. The finals will be aired in another one-hour broadcast on Sept. 3. 

The way Tough Mudder chief marketing officer Jerome Hiquet described it, Tough Mudder X sounds like the melding of the strength-based CrossFit Games that air on ESPN and NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. The course will include 10 obstacles intermixed with workout zones. 

“We wanted to find the best blend to challenge athletes," Hiquet said. "Whether you’re coming from CrossFit, track, obstacle course racing or wherever else, we wanted to make this a unique competition.”

There will be 200 athletes, with the top 24 male and female finishers in prelims moving on to the finals. The men’s and women’s winners will each earn $25,000. 

The concept for Tough Mudder X was a collaborative effort between Tough Mudder and CBS --- and one that is much easier for TV crews to capture. The courses for the World’s Toughest Mudder and Toughest Mudders are five miles long, include about 20 obstacles and hundreds of competitors. 

“We realized that that this new format, since it’s shorter, can make for much more impactful sports programming,” Hiquet said.