Getty Chip and Joanna Gaines during a SiriusXM radio interview in July 2021.
There’s no doubt that former HGTV superstars Chip and Joanna Gaines are still the king and queen of home improvement television, with news of two exciting developments for them this month — their first Emmy nod and the grand opening of their castle (yep, they have their own castle).
Media critics and fans had wondered whether the couple’s reality TV crowns might slip after leaving HGTV and launching their own lifestyle channel, Magnolia Network, in January 2022. But the network crushed expectations right out of the gate. A joint venture between the Gaineses and Discovery Inc., Magnolia used to be Discovery’s “DIY” cable channel. Yahoo reported that with its January 5 on-air launch, Magnolia Network “instantly shattered all of the existing cable channel’s TV ratings records.”
In addition to solid ratings, the couple is celebrating two major developments this month…
The “Fixer Upper” Stars Just Received Their First Emmy Nomination
On July 12, the couple received word that their show, “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home,” had received an Emmy nomination in the outstanding structured reality program category. The series is a revival of their hit show on HGTV, “Fixer Upper.” Variety reports that although that series did receive Emmy nominations from the Television Academy in 2017 and 2018, the Gaineses weren’t producers on the show, so they weren’t included in the nominations.
The other shows it will be up against at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards are PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” Netflix’s “Love Is Blind,” ABC’s “Shark Tank,” and Netflix’s “Queer Eye” — which is gunning for its fifth straight win in the category. There’s no word yet on whether the Gaineses will attend the ceremony on Sept. 12.
Fans Will Get to Tour Refurbished Castle Before New Show Airs
In addition to starting a new network, the king and queen of home improvement television also bought a castle in 2019, which will open for tours before it’s featured on a spinoff “Fixer Upper” series this fall.
In a 2019 blog post about the Cottonland Castle — completed in 1913 in Waco, Texas — Joanna shared that Chip had tried to purchase the property multiple times over two decades, but never had the winning bid. He’d fallen in love with the castle early in their marriage, she said, even though she thought it looked like a daunting restoration project — and worried it was haunted.
“Chip saw the beauty and potential in this place years earlier than I did, but he never gave up,” she wrote, “and because of that, we now get to make this castle beautiful again.”
“Even though we haven’t the slightest idea of what it will become,” she continued, “what Chip did know all along, deep in his bones, and what I have learned to see too, is this: If you look past the cracks in the masonry, past the rotted floorboards, past the wilderness taking over the backyard, there is a lot of beauty to be found in this old castle.”
After nearly two years of renovations, including a knocker proudly placed by Chip on the front door weeks ago, the 6,700-square-foot castle will open to the public on July 21 for three months of daily tours. For $50 per person, hour-long walking tours of the refurbished castle will be given to small groups of 10 people or less, with 20% of net profits benefitting The Cove, a local non-profit that helps homeless youth in Waco. The reservation website notes that guests should be able to physically walk three sets of staircases. Tours will run through Oct 29, and the couple plans to sell the castle after that, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.
According to TV Insider, an eight-episode “Fixer Upper” spinoff will chronicle the Gaineses’ renovation of the castle starting in Sept. 2022. “Fixer Upper: Welcome Home — The Castle” will debut on Discovery+.