Renovations are needed. Chip Joanna GainesMagnolia Network was a project that they had high hopes for, but they weren’t prepared for the controversy it would bring. Andy Candis Meredith’s show Homework.
The Fixer Upper alums left HGTV in 2018 after becoming some of the network’s biggest stars. The couple started Magnolia Network, which debuted in January 2021 on Discovery+. Magnolia Network was rebranded DIY Network in January 2022.
HomeworkThe original premiere was on the Discovery+ version of Magnolia Network in August 2021. It then moved to TV in January 20, 222. The series follows the Merediths, as they transform a school of 20,000 feet into their home. They also manage to oversee rental properties and manage their nine children.
The network pulled the plug on the series two days after it first appeared on the airwaves. HomeworkThere are allegations of poor work, increasing budgets and timelines, lack of communication between Andy and Candis, and unsafe conditions.
“I want Magnolia to be accountable,” Aubry Bennion, a Utah homeowner who was one of the Merediths’ former clients, shared via Instagram in January 2022. “It’s mind-blowing to me that they would put Magnolia’s name and reputation on the line or that they would allow these people to represent them without any sort of oversight or mentoring.”
Teisha Hawley, another homeowner, also claimed similar claims. “Hopeless is the word that comes to mind when I think of that day,” she wrote via Instagram in January 2022. “We had been living in our basement for months at this point, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays. We were exhausted, we had just been told all of our funds were used and our home was torn apart with bubbling floors laid.”
Despite the scandal, the Merediths denied lying to clients or swindling them, but admitted that they had set unrealistic goals.
“I fully acknowledge how hard any renovation is, especially when it’s a renovation for television. The timelines that were set were too crazy, and I am an optimistic person,” Candis said in a January 2022 Instagram video. “I know better now that I should never have said these short timelines and set these expectations. That is on me, and I take full responsibility.”
Chip and Joanna have yet to respond to the ordeal. However, they did not react to the headlines. HomeworkThey also explained how they curate the shows on Magnolia Network.
“We don’t do it the typical way. We’re not the network that says, ‘Send in your casting tapes,’” Joanna explained to VarietyJanuary 2022. “For us, it’s been this really authentic way of finding talent. It’s either talent that we’re just completely enamored with as far as what they do, what they’re passionate about. It’s been a little harder, honestly, because it takes a lot of time on the phone and hours of talking them into even wanting to do television. I’d say most of our talent didn’t come to us and say, ‘I want to do a show.’ We came to them and said, ‘Can we highlight what you’re doing? It’s so amazing and inspiring.’”
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