Amid everything that happened in the Beehive State this past year, most of the national media attention on Utah was probably due to TV's popular reality shows, from Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" to a two-episode jaunt through Moab and Park City on the hit "The Amazing Race."

Here's a whimsical look at how television affected - and reflected on - Utahns this year.

January: Shawn Nelson, owner of the LoveSac bean-bag company, becomes the first Utahn to win a national reality TV show when he is picked to be the apprentice, er, workmate to Virgin executive Richard Branson on Fox's "The Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest for the Best."

That same day, an employee of Nelson's files a lawsuit alleging Nelson discriminated against him because he wasn't Mormon. This makes Nelson the first Utahn to be honored as the best and worst executive in the same hour.

Meanwhile, Audrey Evans, formerly of West Valley City, becomes the first Utahn to compete on the real apprentice series, "The Apprentice." She doesn't last long. Host Donald Trump fires her after realizing the foul-mouthed Evans is making the network bleeper guy work too hard.

February: The University of Utah's PBS station, KUED Channel 7, elects to not air a controversial episode of the children's show "Postcards from Buster" that features a lesbian couple. Then the station offers to air an alternate version of a "Frontline" episode about the war in Iraq with the soldiers' swearing bleeped out.

Apparently, the U. thinks soldiers nearly torn apart by a bomb wouldn't say anything saltier than "dang" and that animated rabbits should be asexual.

Consequently, the college is honored with the We Want to Be Like BYU award. It gladly accepts.

May: "Jeopardy!" whiz Ken Jennings goes to the podium one more time for the Ultimate Tournament of Champions and discovers he isn't an Ultimate Champion after all, losing to 27-year-old Pennsylvanian Brad Rutter. The makers of Jennings' board game try to change the game's name to "Can You Beat Brad?" until they learn Jennings already spent his paycheck on an 18-carat gold slide rule.

June: Not one but two professional ballroom dancers from Utah County land on the surprise hit summer reality series "Dancing With the Stars," proving that wearing The Puffy Shirt and tight black polyester pants really doesn't have to be a career killer.

August: That top-10 reality show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," finally comes to Utah to redo the home of a cancer victim. And the new NBC reality series "Three Wishes" comes to Cedar City to grant a wish to each of three residents. Unfortunately, for these shows to come to your town, you have to be really sick.

November: "The Amazing Race," the Emmy-winning reality show, finally detours through Utah, where the contestants ski jump at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, rappel off a cliff near Moab and slurp down Jell-O-moistened Funeral Potatoes while sitting in a vat of Snelgrove ice cream (kidding about that last one).

The Utah Jazz and Fox Sports Network Utah announce that, for the first time, every single Jazz basketball game will be televised - except on Comcast, and only on the Wasatch Front. Comcast subscribers and everyone in rural Utah decide to root for the Nuggets.

December: For the first time, KUTV Channel 2 pre-empts "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" to a later time because lingerie-clad models are more offensive than spurting blood and popping eyesockets on "CSI."

Former KUTV Channel 2 weatherman Kevin Eubank joins his father, veteran meteorologist Mark Eubank, on KSL Channel 5. Contract negotiations are pending on how to get Kevin home and in bed by 10.