(David M. Russell | CBS) “Survivor” contestant Neleh Dennis, shown in 2002, brought a copy of the Book of Mormon along with her to the island.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Julie\u2019s name had barely left our lips when suddenly, in 2002, Neleh Dennis<\/a> was cast on \u201cSurvivor.\u201d Premiering at the turn of the century, \u201cSurvivor\u201d was structured around a social strategy game in which contestants were required to compete in challenges, forage for food, and \u201cout-survive\u201d other players. <\/p>\n Utah news outlets covered Neleh\u2019s assent in the contest like it was a presidential race. The coverage was exclusively positive. Neleh was cute. She was folksy. She was charming.<\/p>\n She was ours.<\/p>\n Every time Neleh uttered \u201coh my heck\u201d it felt like our names were being individually read aloud on prime-time TV.<\/p>\n The neighborhood parents were less horrified by Neleh\u2019s coed living than they had been with Julie\u2019s. Maybe Julie had paved the way for Neleh, or maybe it\u2019s not really living in sin if there\u2019s no roof. Whatever the reason, Neleh was treated differently. She wasn\u2019t a controversy; she was a revered ambassador.<\/p>\n It was reported that Neleh had selected a copy of the Book of Mormon as a personal item<\/a> to bring with her to the island. One of my Sunday school teachers cut out an article about this and read it to us, citing it as an example of missionary work coming in all shapes and sizes. <\/p>\n \u201cNeleh could have brought Teen Vogue,\u201d Sister Swenson said. \u201cBut she didn\u2019t. She brought scriptures. Maybe that\u2019s why the Lord is helping her do so well on \u2018Survivor.\u2019\u201d We amen\u2019ed that. We amen\u2019ed the hell out of that.<\/p>\n Neleh truly was successful, outlasting nearly all the other contestants that season until she made it to the finals against another player named Vecepia. My entire extended family gathered at my Aunt Tami\u2019s house to watch Jeff Probst\u2019s live reading of the last votes. \u201cPlease win,\u201d I whispered to myself throughout the broadcast. \u201cPlease, please win.\u201d<\/p>\n We screamed in excitement whenever Jeff revealed a card with Neleh\u2019s name on it. We booed Vecepia. We didn\u2019t have any particular issue with the latter. But her success felt like a challenge to our way of life.<\/p>\n Neleh took second that season. She lost by a vote or two. I cried when it happened. I had recently come off two Utah Jazz finals losses to the Chicago Bulls. My heart could barely handle another Deseret defeat.<\/p>\n After Julie and Neleh, Utah\u2019s dabbling in reality television became more and more common, to the point that we eventually stopped noticing it so much. Producers pushed the this-might-be-a-sister-wife angle less in introducing characters, aware that the novelty had worn off enough that the general public wouldn\u2019t be intrigued to tune in just because a Utah Latter-day Saint was being paraded across the television like an exotic zoo animal.<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny to me now that we cared so much \u2014 as if my life or anyone\u2019s perception of Utah could ever change in any meaningful way just because David Archuleta<\/a> nailed \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d in the season finale of \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d (another reality show runner-up from the Beehive State).<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t really matter, of course. It didn\u2019t then, and it doesn\u2019t now. I know that. I probably kind of knew it then, too.<\/p>\n Still, even today, when a new set of characters is introduced in the first episode of my favorite reality programs and I find out one of them lives just a few miles from my house, I can\u2019t help but think from somewhere not very deep down, \u201cPlease don\u2019t be crazy. Please don\u2019t be racist. Please don\u2019t say \u2018oh my heck.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlease, please win.\u201d<\/p>\n (Eli McCann) Note to readers \u2022 Eli McCann<\/b> is an attorney, writer and podcaster in Salt Lake City, where he lives with his husband, new child and their two naughty (yet worshipped) dogs. You can find Eli on<\/i> X<\/i><\/a>, formerly known as Twitter, at<\/i> @EliMcCann<\/i><\/a> or at his personal website,<\/i> <\/i>www.itjustgetsstranger.com<\/b><\/a>, where he tries to keep the swearing to a minimum so as not to upset his mother. This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\nAnother Deseret defeat<\/h3>\n
\nTribune guest columnist Eli McCann.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n