If Utahn Doesn't Make It Through Banal 'The Bachelor,' Good for Her VINCE HORIUCHI Salt Lake Tribune on Monday, October 7, 2002 Seventeen years of schooling down the drain. I lost it all the minute I turned on ABC's "The Bachelor." It took only an hour, but during that time, this lame, ridiculously contrived reality show caused every brain cell in my head to implode. Thanks to this sorry program, I have to enroll in kindergarten next fall. "The Bachelor," which airs Wednesdays on KTVX Channel 4 at 8 p.m., is vacuous from start to finish -- basically "Eliminidate" with better production values. But the reason I had to watch it (recorded -- I'm not about to give up "The West Wing" for this) was because there is a Utah woman on the program who is competing with nine other hopefuls to get the attention of bachelor hunk Aaron. Kyla is a 22-year-old airline supervisor from Midvale who is "feminine and very girly" but "can be rugged and get dirty," she said for the show's Web site. On the second episode last week, Kyla was nearly booted off the show during the first elimination but survived the cut and became one of the final 10 women after a last-minute change by the bachelor. For those who have not seen the show, the bachelor meets 25 women and then whittles the number to one. On last season's "The Bachelor," the man declined to ask the winner to marry him. Kyla describes herself as someone with "standards and morals." In the last episode, she said she is a Mormon, and "I don't believe in premarital sex, so basically my value system is 'after marriage.' I am a virgin and I will stay that way until I find the man I want to marry." That may be a noble and healthy goal, but Aaron, the vice president of a string of Missouri banks, looks like he might be too anxious for a little zip-a-dee-doo-dah to wait for Kyla. Previews of upcoming episodes show he is willing to engage in tonsil exams with most of the girls while they relax in the hot tub. Funny, Kyla didn't seem to be in any of those shots. She probably won't make it past the next few episodes. If not, good for her. This story appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune 10/07/2002 on page C7