“There’s just something that’s so beautiful about all the shows and all the talent, showing authentically what they’re doing,” Joanna tells Parade.com in a new interview. “It’s so inspiring that when you’re done watching it, you don’t feel, you know, if you binge-watch, you’re done and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. I hate myself. I need to go eat some food.’ You just feel bad about yourself. This is, I think, the opposite.” Why? Well, the Magnolia Table star continues, “There’s some hope. There’s inspiration. ‘I wanna go do that. I wanna go take a risk myself. I just watched them do that. What is it in my life that needs to be unearthed and what do I need to, you know, set out for?’ It’s that moment in time that I feel like we’re ready to put it out there. The message of hope and beauty and inspiration, we just hope people resonate with it and leave feeling like it was time well spent and it was inspiring.” Among the risk-takers, creators, dreamers, course changers and learners featured on the network are Chip and Joanna themselves. The Magnolia Network marked the design duo’s highly anticipated return toFixer Upper, which they stepped away from in 2018. “We’re so excited to be back. I mean, we really thought when we said this was gonna be our last season, which has now been a few years… we thought that was really it,” Chip admits. “And something about this opportunity, to launch a network, we sort of started envisioning the network being our future, but Fixer Upper being where we came from and how could we tie that circle together. How could we complete that loop and so Fixer Upper was just that obvious bridge to gap those to the past and the future.” For Chip and Jonna, the opportunity simply felt right. “It felt like an old friend,” Chip says. “Introducing your old friends to your new friends, kind of an analogy, and it felt really, really right.” Continue reading for more on Chip and Joanna’s Magnolia Network, Fixer Upper and what’s next…
Was the network a goal you had set for yourselves, or did it feel like a natural next step?
Chip Gaines: The network did not feel like a natural next step. No, we were thinking more like a retirement home of some sort, like a beautiful place in Florida, like a condo—where they have meals prepared. You go down and you play dominoes with your dearest friends, you know, we didn’t see this coming to say the very least, but the fact that [Discovery CEO] David Zaslav called us and said, ‘What about this.’ I mean nobody had this in our side of the equation, even in the remote possibility or the wildest dream category. So this has been something else to say the least and we are just so thankful that David called us out and said, ‘Hey, we want you to do this with us and we want you to have a network and we want this network to look like this.’ Obviously, over the years it’s kind of evolved and modified a few times but big-picture, this was sort of his vision, initially for us. And when we heard it, I mean it captivated Jo and I’s hearts.
For viewers who haven’t tuned into the Magnolia Preview on discovery+, why should they tune in and how is it different from other networks like HGTV?
Joanna Gaines: So with the preview, what we’ve been excited about is getting to just show a little sneak peek of a lot of the shows we’ve been working on [for] what feels like for the last two, two and a half years, and it feels like, you know, because of the stopping and the starting of network launch, all this stuff. We’ve been working so hard on this that I just feel like the talent, everyone’s just ready. It’s like this is the right moment. We always joke that I don’t know if you really launch a network in the middle of summer, but we do! Chip Gaines: We’re going for it! Joanna Gaines: We’re gonna go for it and I think more than anything, it’s just, if you’re wanting to spend time here and watch these shows, it’s one of those things where even as we’re watching these episodes come in half the time we get chills we’re crying like, like, ‘Oh let’s go do this now.’
It sounds like the network prompted your return to Fixer Upper.
Chip Gaines: I think so. I think apart from the network, we probably wouldn’t be here, at least in the Fixer Upper sense but something about us being so passionate about so many of the shows and the people that are behind those shows, we really wanted to sort of connect the dot[s]. I mean we kind of kept stepping back and going, the whole world knows us from our relationship to them via Fixer Upper and so it just felt nice to kind of shake those hands. So it was definitely what brought us together, brought us back to the idea of Fixer Upper.
How do you guys feel like you’ve changed since Fixer Upper first premiered in 2013?
Chip Gaines: Oh my gosh, we are so much different it’s not even funny. Joanna Gaines: Well, look at him. Chip Gaines: Look at me!… My grandma wouldn’t even recognize me—she wouldn’t even recognize me, would she? Joanna Gaines: She wouldn’t—where we started in 2013, the experience we’ve had, the people we’ve got to meet along the way, a lot of these things kind of opened our eyes to just a bigger, beautiful world and I think now where we stand, you know Chip has always taught me and the kids, because I’m just an introvert, but he’s always said, ‘Hey, when you meet somebody, their story matters and the more you get to know them no matter how different y’all are, their story is beautiful and always respect that story.’ And I just feel like now, years later we’ve gotten to meet so many people with beautiful stories, some of which we get to share on the network that I just feel like we’ve allowed our kind of hearts and minds to be open to meeting new people and learning from their journeys and their challenges. Now I think I just I look up and just think we’ve grown in a way where just the world, we really see it as the world is a beautiful place and there’s so many stories that need to be told no matter how different they are. They’re beautiful stories. So I don’t know, I feel like it started with kind of two naive kids who didn’t know what they were doing and we’re still in some way two naive kids who don’t know what they’re doing, but we’re sure having a lot of fun and we’re loving the people that we’re meeting along the way.
You’ve accomplished so much. What is next for you guys?
Joanna Gaines: Vacation. Chip Gaines: Dominos. Dominos. Have we mentioned dominos, yet? Spades? I heard that there was a spade tournament coming through town. Joanna Gaines: I’ll enroll in a spades tournament. Chip Gaines: Cornhole. I want to play a lot of cornhole. Joanna Gaines: You know Chip is the biggest dreamer of anybody I know. And so, you know, anytime you think, okay, we can just stop and focus on all the things we’ve said yes to, he will come up with another thing that we can say yes to that we’ll be so excited about. So for me, it’s just like, I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner. You never know with this guy, what he’s gonna drag home. Chip Gaines: We’ve got a lot on our plate for sure and we are taking this moment this next season to really focus on the things that we have on the ground with the Silos here in Waco, the magazine that Jo’s so passionate about, the network which is obviously our future and the next big thing. But I do agree with Jo that we’ve got our hands full, at least here in the short term. Joanna Gaines: And I feel like once we start this network, once the launch happens, that’s when the real work begins. Now we have, I mean we’ve got to fill these spots. We’ve got to create more shows. Find more talent, which, all that stuff has been what we’ve loved the most about building this network—meeting people getting to highlight their stories—and so we feel like once July 15th comes, we’re ready to get to work. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Next, everything you need to know about Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network.
