After ending Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gaines were approached by Discovery CEO David Zaslov about what it would take to get them back in front of a camera. As Zaslav told Inc., he avoided pitching them show ideas or formats, instead asking what they were most passionate about. Joanna had a quick answer: their magazine, Magnolia Journal. "I live and breathe that thing," she revealed, which she viewed as "a way to connect with our people."
As Joanna explained in an interview with USA Today, having their own network would provide a whole other way to forge that connection. "It felt to us a lot like what we do love with the magazine, but on a different playing field," she added.
The one thing that Chip and Joanna insisted on was creative control, and Zaslav was happy to offer it. "My job is to stay out of the way and have them be who they are," he shared. "At a time when there's so much anger in the culture, they represent everything that America wants: faith, family, food, home, kindness, authenticity."
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