Why the stars of 'Fixer Upper' are leaving the reality TV juggernaut after 5 seasons and a home-improvement empire
- HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines announced season five of "Fixer Upper" will be the last.
- In his upcoming book, "Capital Gaines," Chip explained how they came to this decision.
- Ultimately, it was a matter of priorities: The show was taking their energy away from their family and business.
HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines are leaving their hit show "Fixer Upper."
In Chip's upcoming book, "Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff," the DIY entrepreneur explains exactly why.
"It was really easy for us to feel like we could do it all when the show and the business were in the early stages," writes Chip. "But the bigger things got - and they got big fast - the less energy we had to devote to all three. So much time was being allocated to filming that the details of the business were slipping."
In short, they are tired.
The Gaineses had realized, he writes, that between the two of them, they can do two things well at a time. However, for many years they were juggling three: their home life with four children, their business, and their TV show.
"These major responsibilities affect my ability to sleep, and they steal from my peace of mind," Chip writes. "Each is important. Each is worthwhile. And each is something that that can't succeed without Joanna's and my personal involvement."
Fans of the HGTV show might not realize that Magnolia, the Gaineses' business, predates "Fixer Upper" by nearly two decades. For years, the couple has been buying and flipping investment properties, renovating local homes in Waco, Texas, and operating home decor stores in the area.
The latest iteration of their business is Magnolia Market, the home-improvement hub they created in 2015 from two abandoned grain silos across the street from their children's school, which attracts visitors from all over the US. They also bought a restaurant in downtown Waco and partnered with Target to produce a line of exclusive home goods. Joanna collaborated with HGTV to produce a web series, "Behind the Design."
When the couple announced season five, which begins in November, would be the last season of "Fixer Upper," it was rumored that they made the decision because of safety concerns for their children, INSIDER reported. However, the statement a Gaines representative gave Entertainment Tonight aligns with Chip's explanation, as written in "Capital Gaines."
"These past several years have been such a mind-blowing season of life for us," Chip writes. "They have also been a very real struggle. I've been in this lengthy internal wrestling match, trying to understand and prioritize these three main priorities while also fending off all the other big things that compete for my time. Who deserves the best of me? Which ones get the bulk of my passion and energy? And which, in turn, gets what amounts to my leftovers?"
Their marriage and children automatically take first place, he writes, and while he "dream[s] of the day Jo and I are chairmen of the board and not actually involved in the day-to-day operations" of their business, they are both still needed on the ground.
In fact, it was a tweet from a customer who was experiencing delayed shipping in their Magnolia order that made Chip realize he couldn't do it all.
In "Capital Gaines," Chip adds: "Success is such a complicated thing. All successful people want to be able to take at least some credit for their successes. But successful people also struggle in their heart of hearts about whether it was just luck, or just being in the right place at the right time, or something else."
Most of all, he continued, "these days I find myself wondering, What comes next?"