What We Know About Chip And Joanna Gaines' HGTV Comeback

Few HGTV couples have become so universally loved as Chip and Joanna Gaines have. Although the couple almost lost the opportunity to star in their hit show "Fixer Upper" in 2014, they've built an empire after gaining success on their HGTV show. Since the series finale of "Fixer Upper" aired in 2018, the couple launched their own television channel in January 2022 called the Magnolia Network. They've also continued their renovation business, flipping a hotel in Waco, Texas that was showcased in "Fixer Upper: The Hotel," available on the Magnolia Network and Max. 

Despite stepping away from the channel after years of work and success, the Gaineses had a big announcement to share with fans in March 2024. Ahead of the tenth anniversary of the original "Fixer Upper" premiere, they are set to return to HGTV with a spin-off titled, "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse." The couple couldn't be more excited to come back to the place where their success all started, but the announcement was met with mixed reactions from fans.

Dedicated viewers were upset by the news that "Fixer Upper" starring Chip and Joanna Gaines was ending, but the news of another spin-off on HGTV was welcome for many. In March 2024, the couple released a trailer for their upcoming six-episode series "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse," where they will renovate a lakehouse in their hometown of Waco, Texas with the episodes dropping in June 2024. The Gaineses expressed their excitement at returning to HGTV in an interview with Variety.

"When 'Fixer Upper' premiered 10 years ago, we couldn't have imagined the journey we had ahead of us," they said. "Though a lot has changed and evolved in the decade between then and now, our love for home is still at the heart of everything we do. We feel honored that we get to continue pouring into the stories of these homes across Waco, and we're excited to share our latest project with you this summer with 'Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse."

Many fans reacted with excitement at the Gaineses' comeback, but some were a bit more skeptical about the project the couple had chosen to pursue. One fan commented on Instagram, "It was fun when they fixed up houses that REALLY needed it. Now it's just renovating expensive houses," while another echoed the sentiment, "That house already looks nice inside! What demo?"

While Chip and Joanna Gaines were happy at the prospect of returning to HGTV for "Fixer Upper: The Lakehouse," their time on the original series wasn't always easy. During an interview with the Cowboys and Indians magazine in 2019, Chip explained how difficult it was to constantly be filmed for the show, and what ultimately led them to quit "Fixer Upper." He explained, "...The more staged something becomes, or the more required something becomes, it boxes me up, and I felt toward the end of the 'Fixer Upper' journey, I felt caged, trapped. Jo and I couldn't figure it out,

The couple has also opened up about becoming burnt out towards the end of "Fixer Upper," and needing to take a step back, which resulted in the series ending. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Gaineses contemplated what their future might have been if they had taken time for themselves during filming for "Fixer Upper." Chip said, "We wonder sometimes...if we had a little more leverage, more bandwidth or capacity, could we have stayed in the HGTV ecosystem for years and years longer? Because we worked so hard, five years felt like a hundred. We were really ready to exit stage left."