The original 'Fixer Upper' almost didn't happen because Chip Gaines thought it was a scam

• "Fixer Upper" almost didn't happen because Chip Gaines thought a call from a producer was a "scam."
• Joanna Gaines "somehow convinced" her husband Chip to let her call the producer back.
• "Fixer Upper" aired for five seasons on HGTV and is back on Discovery+.

"Fixer Upper," the popular home-makeover show led by Chip and Joanna Gaines that is now enjoying a second run on Discovery+, almost didn't happen because Chip thought a call from a producer was a scam.

In their 2016 book, "The Magnolia Story," Joanna wrote about receiving a call from television producer Katie Neff who had seen pictures of a home Joanna designed on a popular design blog. Joanna said she asked Neff why they would want to do a show about Chip and her.

"Well, we just love how organic it is - that you and your husband work together," Joanna recalled Neff saying. "Not only do you sell homes, but you also flip and renovate them.

"We think it's unique that you're a husband-and-wife team," Neff added.

When Joanna did tell her husband, Chip, about the producer's interest, he was skeptical.

In fact, Joanna wrote that Chip dismissed it right away and told her it was a scam.

"Don't call them back," he told Joanna.

Chip's skepticism was rooted in high school friends falling victim to scams

Chip wrote about friends of his in high school who were scammed out of thousands of dollars while trying to break into the modeling industry.

"They would go to these 'agents' and 'casting calls' and then wind up paying some guy $1,000 to take their headshots," Chip wrote in "The Magnolia Story." "And nothing would ever come of it."

"So, yeah, I thought it was something like that," he added.

He told Joanna that he thought that if they did go ahead with it and met the crew, they'd get "all excited" and might end up having to pay several thousand dollars without anything actually coming from it.

Joanna, in turn, wrote that she "somehow convinced Chip to let [her] call Katie back" and a few weeks later, a camera crew joined them in Waco, Texas, where they lived, to film the pilot episode of what would become "Fixer Upper."

Far from being a scam, "Fixer Upper" debuted on HGTV in 2013 and ran for five very successful seasons before coming to an end in 2018. The couple is back with "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home," airing Fridays at 8 p.m. EST on their Magnolia Network on Discovery+.