Not everything on Fixer Upper is as real as it appears, but most of the fake elements are just included to make the show television-ready.
Fixer Upper is one of the most popular home renovation shows amongst audiences and it is valuable to the network because of this.
However, just like with all reality television programs, some elements, like the house-hunting scenes in the show, the staging elements, and the whole-house renovations, are not portrayed on the show as they were in real life.
How popular is Fixer Upper really?
Fixer Upper has long been hailed as HGTV’s most popular home renovation show on television. Throughout the course of the original Fixer Upper show, a total of about 109 million viewers tuned in to watch the show at some point.
In fact, the show had garnered so many viewers, that the Discovery CEO, David Zaslav, flew to the Gaineses house in Texas to personally convince them to stay on after the Discovery and Warner Bros. merger.
This decision later paid off when about 3 million people tuned in to watch the launch of the Magnolia Network.
How much of Fixer Upper is real?
A lot of Fixer Upper’s success and continued popularity is attributed to the fact that audiences just cannot seem to get enough of Chip and Joanna Gaines.
As hosts of the show, they are known for being incredibly genuine and friendly towards the families whose homes they renovate.
However, all avid reality television watchers will know that what is portrayed on these types of shows is often far from the truth, and many people have wondered how much of Fixer Upper has been real throughout the years.
Fortunately, some couples who have had their houses renovated on the show, as well as Rachel Whyte who had previously worked as a photographer on the show, have come forward and shared their experiences about which aspects of the show were portrayed accurately, and which were not.
Between revelations that all of the house-hunting clips on the show are fabricated, the furniture is only used for staging, and the fact that Chip and Joanna do not actually renovate all of the rooms in the house while they are there, Fixer Upper fans may feel duped by the show in a sense.
However, these previous contestants have all made a point to explain that while some of the scenes in the show may be re-enacted or staged slightly to make things appear and sound better on the show, for the most part, Chip and Joanna, the permanent renovations, and the upgrades to the homes are portrayed on the show just as they are in real life.
Why are the house-hunting scenes on Fixer Upper not real?
In order to get on the Fixer Upper show, participants had to complete an extensive application process.
This process covered many aspects including the type of budget that the participants could afford to spend on the renovations to their house, since the upgrades were not funded by HGTV and since the participants already had to be under contract for the house that they wanted to renovate before they could even apply to be on the show.
So, while it may seem a bit fabricated that every couple is shown looking at a few different houses on their Fixer Upper episode before choosing their favourite one when you now know that these houses were picked way before the show even started filming, this is only done to ensure that something does not go wrong with the financing or the contract of the home that would in turn delay production of the episode.
Is the final design of the homes on Fixer Upper real?
Joanna Gaines’s signature design style is also a big reason why Fixer Upper is such a popular show.
However, couples who have been on the show have confirmed that all of the furniture and décor elements that Joanna uses for the final staging of the house in each episode are removed when the filming is done.
However, participants on the show are allowed to purchase these items if they would like to, in order to keep the homes looking exactly the way they did in the episode.
Do Joanna and Chip really renovate the whole house?
As explained above, every couple that participates in the Fixer Upper renovations is responsible for setting their own budget for the renovations.
Joanna and Chip then use this budget and the couple’s wish list to determine which renovations will fit into the scope of the project.
This means that in most cases, Chip and Joanna can only renovate the most dilapidated rooms in the home.
