Tom Maurstad

For the next two weeks, the world will be watching the Beijing Summer Olympics to see who wins what and which country will take home the most medals. But if a reality-television Olympics is ever staged, there's no doubt which part of the country viewers would keep hearing as the gold-medal winners were announced – North Texas.

Whether it's Fort Worth, Burleson or Dallas, the area just keeps on racking up the reality-TV wins. Thursday night capped a week in which four North Texans won four competitions: Joshua Allen (Fort Worth) won So You Think You Can Dance, Iliza Shlesinger (Dallas) won Last Comic Standing, Ally Davidson (Dallas) won American Gladiators and Melissa Lawson (Arlington) won Nashville Star.

They are just the latest in an ever-lengthening line of reality-TV champs plucked from the fertile fields of North Texas. And for every winner like Kelly Clarkson (the first American Idol), there are at least a couple of Colby Donaldsons – North Texas natives who, like the cowboy-hat-wearing hunk who was runner-up on the Australian outback edition of Survivor, are standout contestants without actually winning. Tre Wilcox, the former Abacus chef, for example, may have been eliminated midway through Top Chef's third season – while fellow Dallas chef Casey Thompson made into the final three – but that didn't stop him from arguably becoming that season's breakout star.

So what is it about North Texas – something in the air, the water, all that summer sun – that makes it such a productive reality-TV talent farm? There are plenty of demographic and actuarial factors at work. North Texas is a crossroads, a place to which a lot of people come on their way (they hope) to some dream job/destination. The area is known for its booming population of the young and the attractive. With its matrix of small towns and suburbs, big and bigger cities, North Texas offers a varied and easily accessed assortment of back stories and profiles for talent scouts looking to round out a casting call.

But there are also all the influences that make up the spirit of a place. There's just something about Texas in general, and North Texas especially, that makes it the perfect cultural hothouse for growing pre-celebrities. All those pop culture clichés about Texas and Dallas – everything's bigger in Texas, Texans are loud and proud – are so deeply embedded in the fabric of everyday life that you can't live here and not be touched by them. The result of this cultural alchemy is legions of young, undiscovered Texans who combine an easy, genuine sense of self (call it authenticity) with a colorful, oversize way of being in a room (call it brashness). In the TV trade, this makes them easy to connect with and fun to watch, an irresistible combination for network scouts casting a reality show.

"Everybody here [in Los Angeles] loves to come to North Texas," said Keith Cox, TV Land network's executive vice president of original programming, during an interview earlier this year for a story about High School Reunion, a reality show centered on a group of Richardson Pearce High School alumni. "It's easy to get in and out of for one thing. But you always know you're going to find a lot of good-looking people with big personalities. And that's what you need for reality television."

And North Texas' reality-TV winning ways show no signs of letting up. America's Got Talent just announced its 40 finalists for this season (with new shows starting Aug. 26), and four are from, you guessed it, North Texas.

Local contestants have been big winners on four other shows, plus a memorable oh-so-close.  – Leslie Snyder

Eddie McGee
Big Brother
The then-University of Texas at Arlington student, who lost a leg to cancer, triumphed in 2000 on the first edition of the housebound reality competition.

Kelly Clarkson
American Idol
The Burleson hit-maker won the reality juggernaut's first season in 2002, with Nikki McKibbin of Grand Prairie in third place.

Emmitt Smith
Dancing With the Stars
The Cowboys star traded football cleats for dancing shoes, and won the third season's disco-ball trophy in 2006.

Terry Fator
America's Got Talent
The singing ventriloquist, who lives in Trophy Club, had to beat another local, Arlington singer Cas Haley, to win last summer. Now he's headed to Las Vegas fame with a Mirage casino show in February.

Colby Donaldson
Survivor: The Australian Outback
Dallas' reality hunk shoulda-woulda won if he hadn't been so noble by picking eventual winner Tina Wesson for the final vote-off instead of a less-sympathetic competitor. The Christoval native and car customizer used the 2001 show as a launching pad for TV roles.

Ally Davidson
American Gladiator

Melissa Lawson
Nashville Star

Iliza Shlesinger
Last Comic Standing

Joshua Allen
So You Think You Can Dance