As fans come to terms with the news that Fixer Upper is ending after the upcoming fifth season, we're left struggling to understand why the Gaines' decided to end their HGTV run at the height of their success. Chip and Joanna recently opened up to People, explaining that their grueling shooting schedule wasn't sustainable with four young children. But Chip just went a step further in his new book, Capital Gaines, in which he describes an interaction with a Magnolia customer that made him realize it was time to end the show.
Late one night, Chip read a two-sentence tweet he received from a customer. "Hey @chippergaines it's been 3 weeks, and I still haven't gotten my wreath. What's up?!" the customer inquired. It might seem like a minor shipping issue, but instead of being able to connect with the warehouse first thing the next day to resolve the delay, his time was completely monopolized by shooting Fixer Upper. From this, it was clear to him that trying to raise a family, run a business, and shoot a major show was one thing too many.
"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," Chip wrote in Capital Gaines. But their meteoric rise to superstardom changed all that. Suddenly, no matter how good Chip and Joanna were at juggling their time, there just wasn't enough energy to sufficiently devote to all three. "So much time was being allocated to filming that the details of the business were slipping," he explains. Funny how a short tweet can make you see the big picture!
