Meet The Four Southerners Looking For Love On Fox’s “Farmer Wants A Wife”

This is not your average dating show.

Dating shows are a dime a dozen these days but we think there is a new one that may interest a particularly Southern audience. FOX’s Farmer Finds A Wife is unlike any other dating show we’ve seen out there. The un-scripted reality program hosted by country music superstar Jennifer Nettles, follows four Southern men who work in various forms of farming, ranching, or horse training and who are all looking for their soulmate.

This show aims to present a more wholesome look at the search for love and it differs from other existing dating shows in that way and because each of the four men will have their own group of women who are only there for them. In a press release, the network described the show as:

“The pursuit of genuine love never looked like this as each farmer and their group of hopeful singles meet and mutually select one another before the women are invited to experience life on their respective farm. From there, the farmers show each group what it is really like on an actual working farm, from tending to the land, feeding cattle and baling hay, to the behind-the-scenes business operations. For the ladies, the reality of this way of living may beg the question: how far are you willing to go for love? Together, with the hope of finding their ever-after, they endeavor to discover the beauty, humor, trials and romance that come with finding the one. “

The four gentlemen looking for love all hail from our neck of the woods. Allen Foster is a 32-year-old cattle rancher on a 200-acre cattle ranch in Santa Fe, Tennessee. He’s a graduate of the University of Tennessee and in his free time he enjoys hunting, fishing, riding horses and ATVs.

Landon Heaton is a 35-year-old cattle rancher and farmer who lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He graduated from Oklahoma State University. He now presides over a 300-acre cattle ranch, 300-acres of farmland and a 40-acre farmhouse property. He enjoys bow hunting and training retrievers. He also loves to cook.

Ryan Black is a 32-year-old horse trainer and breeder based in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Shelby, North Carolina native attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In addition to training and competing horses, he also loves to build and design houses.

Hunter Grayson is the youngest of the bunch at 31. He attended both Northeastern Oklahoma and Athens Technical College and is now a cattle and horse rancher in his hometown of Watkinsville, Georgia. He enjoys team roping, free dive spearfishing and singing in his band “Hunter Grayson & The Hat Creek Band.”

Southern Living recently spoke with these four eligible bachelors about their decision to take a chance on love in this very public way. Grayson was the least apprehensive about joining up because he knew a similar thing had been done in another country. Australia’s series has been very successful and has aired for years. “Seeing this has already been out there and worked for so many other guys that are in similar boots that we’re wearing, it made me be like, alright, there might be something real with this.”

Black said that he had previously been approached by other dating shows but turned them down. This one was different. “This one, I was able to remain myself…and I was able to do it at my home instead of go to a resort…I felt like the connections would be more authentic. And then for me, if you get a chance to be a cowboy on TV, I’m in,” he said.

Remaining authentic was also important to Foster. “Kinda from square one when I was talking to the producers about this show I got a really good feeling…and the way it was presented to me that I was in fact, going to get to be me and not portrayed as somebody I wasn’t…They also told me, ‘look we’re looking for a wholesome family show’ and that was important to me.” He added, “Where I’m from, your name means more than anything. And to me that’s something that can be wrecked in 15 minutes but it took generations to build so I wanted to make sure my integrity stayed intact.”

Grayson added to Foster’s sentiment, “I said I want this to be something that I can enjoy with my grandmother and that’s what they said they were trying to do with this. This is a show from start to finish that you can watch with Granny and be able to get some laughs and some enjoyment out of it.”

Heaton had a very different first impression when he was approached to join the cast. “Nothing attracted me to this show. I’ve never seen reality TV. I don’t even have a TV,” he told us. He added that his very conservative family also did not initially approve. They were all worried about how he would be portrayed. After he spoke with the production team, he and his family’s worries were eased. “I’ve said it a hundred times, perform the same actions and expect different results is the definition of insanity and apparently the same actions were not working for all of us. So it was kinda nice to stir the pot a little bit and try something different. And with a lot of girls that we would have never met in real life.”

These four men didn’t know each other before the show, but they share a lifestyle that many Americans are not familiar with and that they all feel would make them good partners. “I think gentlemen from this lifestyle whether they be farmers, cowboys, ranchers, we’re the salt of the earth. You know? We’re honest and loyal to a fault and not to say we don’t make mistakes because we do but we’re just hard working, red blooded Americans that are trying to continue a legacy that’s been built for generations upon generations and I think that in and of itself is reason enough for us to be a catch,” Foster told us.

Black shared,“I think that cowboys, we are a catch because I learned that we’re open to communication and the thing about communication it’s not just talking but it’s also understanding and reading your partner and looking at what makes them tick and being present and it’s not always words. And cowboys know that best. We have so much to do and it’s all deep down within us.” He added, “We love our life because we also understand we get one time around this thing. And we live it differently. We live it truly. We live it unapologetically. And I think that is really why our hearts, you know we go to bed stressed out about a cow, like another living animal. We have to give ourselves to God’s earth every day. So we work so hard for other people. We work for families. Both my grandfathers were pastors. They both passed on now but my grandfather had two acres of crops that we just gave to the church families. Every Saturday he would open up the stand and there was no price on the produce. For the community. That is who we are. And we can’t remove that. And that’s why we are a catch.”

While we spoke to the four men over video chat, all four had perfect poker faces. No one revealed if they found love in the end or not, teasing that we’d just have to tune in to see. But all four men agreed that it was a life changing, positive experience. “There was no one, and I can say this confidently, with more reservations about this show than I was. I almost didn’t sign the contract. Once it started I knew there was no chance, I’m not going to find anybody. This is ridiculous. What am I even doing here? I could not have been more shocked with the ending. This side of me that I saw come out during this show surprised me more than anyone and I can’t say enough about it. I could not have been happier with how it did,” Heaton admitted.

“I’ll agree with Landon, I came out the other side of this with a whole different outlook on things. A whole different outlook on life. I grew a whole lot as a person,” Foster said.

“I had no control over who I was going to meet lady-wise or the other guys. So that was all kinda in God’s hands and I just kinda went in with this mindset from the start of open mind, open heart. I’m going to take every opportunity to get the most out of this experience and put the most that I could into it so I had that genuine, heartfelt experience throughout the whole endeavor. And that really sent it home for me. However it turns out, the growth that I’ve had as an individual and the people that I’ve met, contacts that I’ve made, there’s no downside to this story,” Grayson declared.

“What I was most surprised with and shocked about was my inner growth. My own personal growth. It was amazing to me because I didn’t know that there was that much room for emotional growth and those other traits that make me a better person, a better man, a better partner,” Black added.

The four farmers also formed an unbreakable bond between themselves, which they didn’t see coming. “I expected to show up to this and it would just be a bunch of half rent, tractor store cowboys–” Heaton said before Foster jumped in with “And then you found me.” With a chuckle, Heaton finished, “These guys, I talk to them all the time. We are great friends now.”

Tune in to find out if these fellas find love. Farmer Wants A Wife airs Wednesdays on FOX.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.