HGTV announces Fixer Upper Season 5 premiere date, reveals more about final episodes

After months of impatient waiting and fun speculation, we finally have an answer to the biggest question in home renovation entertainment: When is Fixer Upper Season 5 coming on? Before I give you the details, though, I feel I should apologize. Devotées will recall that months ago, in one of our Season 5 sneak peeks, I predicted a return date of November 28, 2017, based on the fact that the last two seasons of the show had both debuted on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Well, HGTV has made the return date official–and I was off by one week. The final season of Fixer Upper will premiere on Tuesday, November 21, in its usual time slot of 9 PM. Based on the fact that this season is sort of Chip and Joanna’s victory lap before their unexpected early retirement, I’m guessing HGTV wanted the extra week so they could add a clip show, retrospective episode, or behind-the-scenes treat for fans, as they did last year. (Chip and Joanna have been pretty adamant about filming no more than sixteen episodes per season, so it seems unlikely that we’ll get more straight-up new footage, last season or no.)

Here’s the official press release, via HGTV:

After attracting more than 27.5 million viewers during its previous run, HGTV’s smash hit series Fixer Upper, featuring power couple Chip and Joanna Gaines, will return for its fifth season on Tuesday, November 21, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Fixer Upper follows Chip and Joanna as they fix up homes in their Waco, Texas, hometown. The long-awaited 19 one-hour episodes will star the popular home renovation duo, who also have been showcased in the pages of HGTV Magazine, on the covers of numerous national print publications and in interviews on national talk shows.

Fresh episodes of Fixer Upper will feature more families who look to the Gaines for help evaluating and transforming a fixer upper into the home of their dreams. The new season also will feature special guests, including former First Lady Laura Bush and football star Tim Tebow. Fans can visit HGTV.com/FixerUpper throughout the new season for exclusive online content, including behind-the-scenes videos and photo galleries. They also can interact on social media using #FixerUpper.

Chip added that he and Joanna are “really, really proud” of the new episodes, and that the two of them “laid it all on the field and didn’t hold anything back.” Given that Laura Bush has appeared in their social media feeds for literally years without appearing on the show, it seems there’s more truth than usual to his statement. We’re also going to get an episode devoted to Magnolia Table, Chip and Joanna’s first-ever restaurant; and to Hillcrest Estate, their second Fixer Upper B&B.

Additionally, we got a tantalizing synopsis of the premiere episode itself:

The premiere episode of season five features Matt and Samantha, a couple who is moving to Waco from Austin, Texas, to find their first family home. They want a historic charmer with lots of room in the budget so that Chip and Joanna can customize it to perfection. To make the renovation more personal, the Gaines secretly ask Matt’s grandfather, a woodworker in Kansas City, to build hand-crafted end tables for the couple’s home.

If you’re wondering why Clint Harp isn’t hand-crafting those end tables, it’s because he’s graduated to his own show, “Wood Work” (formerly “Against The Grain”), which will air on DIY.

But Clint’s absence is actually a kind of sad representation of what viewers should expect from Fixer Upper Season 5. Though we’ll still get to watch them at work, all the show’s alums are moving on. And the Gainses will still be the economic engine at the heart of Waco–but fans accustomed to seeing fresh antics for one-third of the weeks in a given year will have to actually travel down to Texas to find out what’s new.

That is, unless the rumors of Chip and Joanna renegotiating their HGTV contracts turn out to be true–in which case it’s highly likely they’ll be back on their air by 2019 at the latest. (Click here to read that report.)

In any case: Fixer Upper is back in one month! Set your watches to two days before Thanksgiving (!): Fixer Upper Season 5 begins Tuesday, November 21, at 9 PM on HGTV.

(Photo credits: When is Fixer Upper Season 5 coming on via HGTV)