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A Look Back: The 2009 Reality TV Year In Review - December 2009

With 2009 drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at the year that was.  The following is Reality TV World's 2009 Reality TV Year In Review, a 12-part, month-by-month review of some of the past year's reality TV headlines, highlights, lowlights, and milestones. 

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Today we continue our 12-day countdown with the twelfth and final installment: December 2009.

- Simon Cowell and his business partner Sir Philip Green tell a British magazine they are considering launching an international The X Factor edition that would be set in Las Vegas and be available via global pay-per-view on the Internet.

- Potential The Real Housewives of D.C. cast members Michaele and Tareq Salahi deny crashing a White House state dinner in November but are eventually subpoenaed to testify in front of a Congressional committee in January. Bravo launches a consumer survey to receive feedback on the Salahis before pulling it.

- Big Brother ninth-season winner Adam Jasinski is granted bail pending the completion of a substance-abuse treatment program and is subsequently released from prison.

- Former Tool Academy cast member Jaimee Grubbs becomes the first woman to publicly claim she had an affair with professional golfer Tiger Woods. A former Tool Academy castmate subsequently claims Grubbs openly discussed her relationship with Woods while filming the VH1 reality series.

- The Bachelor sixth-season couple Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado reveal they have ended their engagement and broken up after dating for five years.

- Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle's debut album debuts at No. 1 while American Idol eighth-season runner-up Adam Lambert sees his debut album drop at No. 3 in the same week.

- ABC ends its Adam Lambert boycott by letting him perform on The View after canceling several appearances following his controversial American Music Awards performance. 

- MTV renews The Hills for a sixth season that will include Audrina Patridge -- who previously insisted the fifth season would be her last.

- Kate Major and Michael Lohan are both deposed in TLC's breach of contract lawsuit against former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star Jon Gosselin, followed by his ex-girlfriend Hailey Glassman -- who calls him a monster.

- The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Danielle Staub drops a criminal complaint that she was assaulted by fellow cast members Teresa Giudice and Jacqueline Laurita but continues to push for charges against Laurita's 19-year-old daughter.

- A judge grants TLC a preliminary injunction preventing Jon Gosselin from continuing to violate his Jon & Kate Plus 8 contract by making unauthorized media appearances and endorsements. The ruling reportedly leaves Gosselin in "serious financial trouble."

- Advertisers begin pulling their commercials from MTV's controversial Jersey Shore reality series.

- Jon & Kate Plus 8 stars Jon and Kate Gosselin's divorce is finalized.

- Australian authorities charge two ninth-season British I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! contestants with animal cruelty for killing a rat and eating it during an episode of the reality competition series.

- "Dating Couple" Meghan Rickey and Cheyne Whitney win The Amazing Race's fifteenth season.

- Former Hogan Knows Best star and American Gladiators host Hulk Hogan gets engaged to Jennifer McDaniel.

- Leave it to Lamas star and former The Bachelor: London Calling bachelorette Shayne Lamas pleads no contest to her November DUI arrest.

- Former American Idol fourth-season finalist and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew participant Jessica Sierra gives birth to a baby boy.

- Former The Bachelor third-season star Aaron Buerge and his wife Angye McIntosh have a baby girl.

- Danny Cahill is crowned The Biggest Loser's eighth-season winner after setting an all-time weight-loss record.

- Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn reveals he is cancer-free for first time since his April diagnosis.

- Michael Voltaggio defeats his older brother Bryan and wins Top Chef: Las Vegas.

- Former The Girls Next Door and Kendra star Kendra Wilkinson gives birth to a baby boy.

- The nineteenth child of 18 Kids & Counting stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar is born three months prematurely.

- After heavily promoting it, MTV decides not to air footage of Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi getting punched in the face. The puncher, Brad Ferro, apologizes.

- Former The Bachelor thirteenth-season bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars celebrity participant Melissa Rycroft weds Ty Strickland.

- Keeping up with the Kardashians and Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami star Kourtney Kardashian gives birth to a baby boy.

- The Amazing Race fourteenth-season runner-up Jaime Edmondson appears in Playboy as the magazine's "Miss January" centerfold.

- Cowell says a U.S.-based The X Factor edition would be set in Los Angeles not Las Vegas and a U.K. newspaper reports he may leave Idol after its 2011 edition and is finalizing a deal for an American The X Factor edition that would air on Fox and begin filming in Los Angeles in September 2011.

- Upcoming The Bachelor star Jake Pavelka reveals he didn't promise a marriage proposal during his final Rose Ceremony.

- Russell Ferguson wins So You Think You Can Dance's sixth-season after injuring himself during live finale.

- America's Best Dance Crew judge and former So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Shane Sparks is arrested and charged with child molestation.

- Natalie White wins Survivor: Samoa by defeating Russell Hantz and Mick Trimmer.  Hantz subsequently calls it the "worst upset in reality TV history."

- CBS finally formally confirms Survivor's twentieth season -- which was filmed back-to-back with Survivor: Samoa in Samoa in Summer 2009 -- will be dubbed Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, feature 20 former castaways and premiere in February.

- American Idol fourth-season winner Carrie Underwood gets engaged to NHL star Mike Fisher.

- Nota is crowned the winner of NBC's The Sing-Off a cappella reality singing competition.

- Simon Cowell's older brother Terry claims a press announcement that Simon is leaving Idol after its 2010 edition to launch an American version of The X Factor in 2011 is being prepared.  Fox declines comment.

- Fox releases American Idol's entire ninth-season early broadcast schedule, revealing it is dropping some of the 2009 season's format changes and returning to the show's previous format which features 24 semifinalists, a gender-balanced gradual elimination process, and does not include a "Wild Card" semifinals round.

Premieres: Bad Girls Club, Season 4 (12/1); Steven Seagal Lawman (12/2); Launch My Line (12/2); Dog the Bounty Hunter, Season 6 (12/2); The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty (12/13); Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Season 4 (12/13); The Sing-Off (12/14); Bank of Hollywood (12/14); One Big Happy Family (12/29); The Imploders (12/30).

<< PRIOR STORY A Look Back: The 2009 Reality TV Year In Review - November 2009 NEXT STORY >> 'D-List' star Kathy Griffin drops vulgarity on New Years show -- again

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