Tribune TV critic Vince Horiuchi says 2008 will be remembered as the year Utah got real—at least as far as landing contestants on reality television shows.

From David Archuleta, American Idol, to Miss America's National Guard medic Jill Stevens to Kelsey Nixon on The Next Food Network Star, a couple dozen Utahns, for better or worse, made Utah a part of pop culture. (Throw in Mitt Romney's run for president and a pack of polygamists and it was truly a twisted year for the state's image.)

For some reason, Vince left out the reality TeeVee moment of the year — Marie Osmond flops (literally) on Dancing with the Stars. Of course that might not have been an oversight afterall, since some witnesses say Marie faked her faint.