Fixer Upper fans have reason to celebrate. Chip and Joanna Gaines are coming back to TV.
It’s been seven months since the last episode of the couple’s wildly popular HGTV show aired. Since then, fans of the Gaines family have been suffering from a serious deficit of shiplap. But now, thanks to a loose-lipped Chip’s revelation on The Tonight Show, we know that he and Joanna will soon be back on the small screen – though not on HGTV.
Why did Chip and Joanna quit Fixer Upper?
Joanna and Chip Gaines | Joanna Gaines via Instagram
Ever since Chip and Joanna announced the end of Fixer Upper last year, disappointed fans have wondered why.
Officially, they said wanted to step back, take a break, and spend more time with their growing family (baby No. 5 arrived in June). In his book Capital Gaines, Chip admitted to feeling that the show had sucked up “precious time that I had always promised would be reserved for my true loves, my family and my business.”
But some people wondered if there wasn’t another reason the couple parted ways with HGTV. Vanity Fair speculated that they wanted to move on to bigger and better things, and that sticking with their HGTV show was holding them back, especially since the network reportedly made it difficult to promote their Magnolia-branded products.
Joanna also hinted that they’d be open to returning to TV if the right opportunity came along.
“We’re entrepreneurs at heart, so we’ll always be looking forward to what’s next,” she told People. “As it relates to TV, you just never know.”
Introducing the Magnolia Network?
Chip and Joanna appeared on the The Tonight Show on November 10. That’s when Chip let slip the big news about their return to TV. After admitting he’d signed a non-disclosure agreement and wasn’t supposed to talk about it, he confessed, “We are coming back to television.”
A representative for Magnolia, the Gaines’s company, confirmed the news.
“We’re excited to share that we are currently in the early stages of talking with Discovery about a lifestyle-focused media network for Magnolia,” John Marsicano told Country Living. “The details surrounding this opportunity remain a work in progress, but together, our hope is to build a different kind of platform for unique and family-friendly content.”
An anonymous source told USA Today that the new channel would probably be known as the Magnolia Network. Discovery owns HGTV along with the Travel Channel, Investigation Discovery, Cooking Channel, Discovery Family, Food Network and other channels. The new channel would likely replace one of the company’s existing, under-performing brands, perhaps DIY, Destination America or Great American Country, the source told the paper.
When will Chip and Joanna be back on TV?
Joanna Gaines | Joanna Gaines via Instagram
The details of the new Magnolia-focused network are sketchy at this point. The Gaines’s and Discovery both say they are in talks to develop the new network. But beyond that, nothing is certain.
If all goes well, the channel could be on the air in the 12-18 months, according to USA Today. On The Tonight Show, Chip said they expected to do much of the filming in Waco.
Viewers who tune in will see “quality, family-friendly programming,” Discovery said in a statement. In the meantime, fans will have to content themselves with shopping the Gaines’s Hearth & Hand line of home accessories at Target or curling up with Joanna’s new book, Homebody: A Guide to Creating Spaces You Never Want to Leave, which hit stores November 6.
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