It’s not every family whose life comes to grace the small screen.

But as of tonight, that’s exactly what will be happening to the Willis family, of Terrebonne, the subject of a new Comcast SportsNet reality television show called “Stompin’ Ground.”

“Stompin’ Ground” delves into the rodeo lives of husband and wife Sam and Robin Willis, their daughters, Stevie Rae Willis and Sammy Jo Cardoza, and Sammy Jo’s husband, Russell Cardoza. The show will premiere tonight at 10 o’clock on Comcast SportsNet and then will air on Wednesday nights for the rest of its 10-episode run.

“We actually didn’t think it’d ever materialize,” Sam Willis, 51, says of being contacted by the network about doing the series.

But about a year after sitting down with the network to talk, the show did start to take shape.

In June 2011, film crew members in several production vehicles rolled up to the Willis property — which is also home to about 45 horses and about two dozen cats and dogs — situated a few miles north of Terrebonne for filming.

The Willis family is a longtime fixture in the regional rodeo community. Sam Willis is a 13-time Northwest Pro Rodeo Association men’s all-around champion; he earned his first title in 1984 and his most recent in 2007. Twenty-three-year-old Sammy Jo (two) and 17-year-old Stevie Ray (four) have contributed women’s all-around championships to the family’s haul. (The women’s all-around in the NPRA is made up of barrel racing and breakaway roping.) Even Robin Willis, 51, who grew up in Hood River and says she had not attended a rodeo before she met Sam, used to compete.

And, of course, there is Russell Cardoza, who only adds to the Willis family’s rodeo star power. Cardoza, a team roper, is a two-time participant in the National Finals Rodeo, the Super Bowl of professional rodeo. (At the time of the interview for this story, the Cardozas, who spend much of the year away from home, were in Texas.)

And so last year, the Comcast crew members filmed the Willises doing what they do: practicing, traveling and competing. They shot film of Stevie Rae one day at school at Redmond Proficiency Academy and at her birthday party at a bowling alley. They filmed Robin running errands to the bank and the grocery store, and Sam at work as an equine chiropractor.

“It was a constant, you know, day and night,” Robin Willis says of the crew’s presence. “They were here so much, you know what I mean?”

The crew had to adapt to the family’s unusual life and schedules.

For example, family dinner scenes, which the crew wanted to film, are rare in the summer, Robin says, as the family members eat when they can. (They might be out practicing until 10 o’clock in the evening, she notes.)

“I think that’s the reality of rodeo, though, and that’s what they really wanted that they didn’t understand it wasn’t like an 8-to-5 job,” Robin Willis observes. “That’s the reality part that they were looking for.”

And so tonight, she will get to start seeing how a segment of her life — the show was filmed over parts of five months — translates onto the TV screen.

Sam Willis says he plans to be watching.

“Oh, yeah, I’ll watch it,” he says of the show. “Oh, heck yeah. I can’t wait.”

Stevie Rae, a frequent viewer of the MTV reality series “Jersey Shore,” wants her own show to strike a different tone.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, I really hope it’s not like that,’ ” she says.

For his part, Sam hopes that “Stompin’ Ground” will have a positive effect on the world of rodeo.

“That was my biggest goal with it, when it all come about,” he says. “It’s like, well, if we’re going to do this, let’s educate them a little bit.

“Maybe we can educate our association, and they can actually change things that will be better for the cowboys in the future. My career’s over with, but I got kids and they’re going to hopefully have kids, and I’d like for this deal to turn around and benefit cowboys.”

Both Sam and Robin Willis say they do not expect to film for a second season of “Stompin’ Ground.” Robin says the process led the family to reflect more about rodeo and the manner in which they represent the sport.

But it was also difficult, at least in some ways.

“It hurt us competitively,” she acknowledges. “It gets you in the wrong frame of mind because you get asked these questions and stuff before you’re trying to compete, and it gets you out of … that mode.”

And Stevie Rae says the film crew wanting to know what she was thinking after finishing events was difficult, and she would hold on to disappointments longer than she wanted.

But the show will also get viewers into the world of rodeo — at least through the eyes of one rodeo family. Just don’t expect the Willises’ heads to swell as a result of their stint on television.

“What we do — it’s just what we do,” Robin says. “We know different, but it’s our choice. It’s what we do so we don’t think we’re special in any way. … I think that is because we know how hard it is to be on the road like this, to keep things together, and it almost takes a whole family, really. It takes everybody together to do this because it’s too hard. It can be done, but it’s hard.”

Stompin’ Ground

What: Reality television series about the rodeo life of the Willis family, of Terrebonne

Who: Husband and wife Sam and Robin Willis, their daughters, Stevie Rae Willis and Sammy Jo Cardoza, and Sammy Jo’s husband, Russell Cardoza

When: Premieres at 10 o’clock tonight on Comcast SportsNet and will move to Wednesdays for the rest of the 10-episode series

More info, including bonus video tracks: www.csnnw.com/pages/stompinground