FOX's 'Farmer Wants A Wife;' Family of Wisconsin's Grace Girard weighs in

CALEDONIA, Wis. - A Wisconsin family says a Colorado farmer looking for love on hit reality FOX show "Farmer Wants a Wife," should look no further than Caledonia's own Grace Girard. She is one of two women left competing for Farmer Brandon Rogers on a show that takes place mostly on his farm in Center, Colorado.

The show follows four farmers as they each look for love. Girard applied for the show after her aunt, who follows reality TV, saw the application go live and encouraged her to apply. Girard grew up in the Kenosha area and now lives with her parents and twin sisters in Caledonia, while working full-time. 

Once Girard was selected for the show on FOX and knew she would be paired with Rogers, the family described it as a "full scramble," getting eight weeks worth of outfits packed, each of which had to be approved by show producers. 

"They didn't tell her where she was going, so they said in a couple days, we'll tell you where you're going," recalled her dad, Sam Girard. "The next day you show up at the airport and you go. So it was pretty regimented and confidential how they ran the process."

In the first episode, Rogers met Girard and the seven other women who all agreed to the eight weeks of potential filming, depending on how long they remained on the show.

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Once the group was cut down to five, all the women moved into Rogers' farm house in Colorado where many of the women shared rooms. Throughout portions of filming, Gerard was without her phone. However, she'd call her family periodically, giving them updates.

"It's really an art how they stitched everything together," said her father Sam. "She gives you all the back story, which is just fascinating when you're watching the show."

Girard's dad said Grace struggled with drama that unfolded both on and off-screen between other women at times. But she said she'd take Rogers' dog for a walk each morning to reduce stress and start the day off right.

"The phrase we'd use when we're talk to her was, 'Don't be in the fish bowl, watch the fish bowl,'" said Girard. "When you're on a farm with a bunch of women, you don't know, in a farm, in the middle of nowhere, you can't just say, I've had it. You're locked in there with all this stuff on film all day, that's stressful."

Girard has continued to emerge through the process as a top choice for Rogers. She has gained the reputation with Rogers as having a "calm" demeanor, something that gave her family a good laugh.

"In a good way, she’s very outgoing and loud and exciting and definitely the life of the party," laughed her sister, Natalie Gerard. "So the fact that he described her as the calm one took us all by surprise."

What also gave her family a laugh? Girard's kiss with Farmer Brandon despite Grandpa's warning not to kiss on live TV.

"When they kissed, it's like yeah, that's really cool," said her dad. "Why it was cool is because we had heard so many good things about Brandon."

Since filming is over, Girard and her family both know the show's outcome, but have enjoyed hosting watch parties each week for their family and friends.

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"Grace would kill us if we said anything," laughed her dad. "It's a small group of people with a cone of silence."

"Farmer Wants A Wife" airs on FOX6 on Thursdays at 8 p.m. central time.