It probably wasn't what her professors at BYU thought they were training her for, but Mormon NataLee Callahan's degree in broadcast journalism helped land her on HGTV.The Utah woman is a contestant on Season 4 of the cable network's "Design Star" (Sunday, 11 p.m., HGTV), a show that rewards its winner with his or her own TV show."I'm not uncomfortable in front of the camera. I'm not shy," Callahan said in an interview with the Deseret News. "So, by doing this show, I was hoping to combine my two loves."Those loves being broadcasting and interior design. Because, unlike many reality/competition shows, "Design Star" requires both skill sets. Not only are contestants required to turn out beautiful designs each week, but they have to demonstrate TV hosting skills as well."You have to be a great designer, and you also have to have a good personality that can carry an audience — keep their interest," Callahan said. "And you kind of have to be a Jack- or Jill-of-all-trades. Carpentry skills are good. Designing skills are good. You kind of have to do it all."She has more formal training as a broadcaster, but more practical experience as a designer. Callahan is largely self-trained."As far as formal training, I took a couple of classes in college. But they didn't offer that as a program at BYU," said Callahan, who was trained in floral and wedding design."That kind of got me in the design world," she said. "I started doing a lot of stuff at home. My mom made me take sewing lessons when I was younger, so that gave me the opportunity to do things at home. And I taught myself how to reupholster furniture and all these different things."Some of my neighbors started asking me for help, and people started offering to pay me. And real estate agents that I worked with asked me to stage their clients' homes, and I staged all of my clients' homes. And one thing led to another and I ended up doing design full time."She's designed homes for the Utah Valley Parade of Homes and at Daybreak in South Jordan. Callahan has worked on a few commercial projects, but her main focus is residential design.And she describes her style as "transitional, fun, comfortable and unexpected."She certainly ran into the unexpected on "Design Star." As prepared as she thought she was, Callahan quickly discovered you can never really be ready for what it means to be on a TV reality show."They call it reality TV, but it's a very surreal situation that you're thrown into. When you sign up for something like this, you kind of know that you're not going to have a lot of privacy. But you really don't," she said with a laugh. "You have a microphone on all the time and cameras everywhere you go. So there is not one thing that gets missed by the cameras. I don't know if I expected more privacy, but I guess I didn't expect quite as many cameras."And, as viewers will see in Sunday's premiere, Callahan and her partner run into a lot more trouble than they expect in their first challenge. Not only do they run short on time, but their plan to paint a design on the floor of their room turns out, well, somewhat disastrously when they pulled the tape up off the floor."The time issue was definitely one of our biggest struggles on that first task," she said. "There's a lot of time that gets cut away, whether it's driving or shopping at stores that you've never shopped at before."And then there's trying to work when those pesky cameras are following your every move."Definitely cameras in the way all the time. Sometimes you run into them and have to tell them to move. It's tough to work around that," she said. "I do think that the tape issue that you'll see was from cameramen stepping all over the tape."There's things you just have to deal with and make concessions for. And sometimes, if you don't really know what you're getting into, it's hard."And, when the going gets tough, there's no way to hide. And no way to hide what happened from the show's judging panel.This season, all three judges on "Design Star" are the hosts of their own shows on HGTV. Vern Yip ("Deserving Design") is joined by Candice Olson ("Divine Design") and Genevieve Gorder ("Dear Genevieve") And, though the three of them are all charming as TV hosts, they're tough as TV judges.They're considerably more polite than, say, Simon Cowell, but they're no less harsh.("You took a beautiful room and destroyed it," Olson says at one point. "It looks like a rainbow threw up in there," Yip says another time.)"I was excited to have them as judges. But they were definitely tough," Callahan said with a laugh. "I think they took their jobs very seriously. And it was kind of hard to stand in front of people that you respect and have watched for so many years and have them critique your work. That was kind of tough to take at times."At the same time, Callahan said she formed friendships with her fellow contestants."You see all these reality shows where people are, like, 'Oh, we're just like family. Or best friends.' And it's hard to believe," she said. "But you do form fast friendships. It was amazing how quickly everybody bonded. I have nothing but good to say about everybody that I met there. I hope that we stay friends."There was definitely of lot of personality — a lot of personality — in the house. And egos. But, luckily, most people were keeping those in check."Even though the going got tough, Callahan said she'd do it again if she had the chance."This is just an amazing opportunity that I'm glad to have been a part of," she said. "It's a lot of validation for what you do and the talent that you have to be included in this. There were something like 10,000 applicants, so to make it on (the show) is a huge honor."Yeah, I would do it again. Definitely."
If you watchWhat: "Design Star"When: July 19, 11 p.m.Channel: HGTVToday on TV
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com