A Fort Worth TV show is still coming to Chip & Joanna Gaines Magnolia Network in 2021
A new television show featuring Fort Worth entrepreneur Jonathan Morris is still tentatively planned for release in mid-2021 despite pandemic delays, Morris told Fort Worth Chamber members Tuesday.
The show, titled “Self-Employed,” will feature Morris traveling to various cities and learning the successes and challenges of other small business owners. It will run on the new Magnolia Network, which celebrity home improvement experts Chip and Joanna Gaines plan to launch in early to mid-2021.
Magnolia Network was originally scheduled to launch in October of this year, but was delayed by the coronavirus. Morris said filming for “Self-Employed” recently began and is on course to begin airing as soon as spring 2021.
The Gaines’ also plan to bring back their popular show, “Fixer-Upper,” on the new network as well. That show originally aired on HGTV.
“I think it’s a really cool opportunity to maybe tell a bigger story about Fort Worth,” Morris said of his new show, during the chamber’s annual meeting.
The Fort Worth chamber’s annual gathering, dubbed Fortitude, was held online this year because of the pandemic.
Morris is founder of the Fort Worth Barbershop, which opened in 2014. (He has said he’s the owner, but not one of the hair-cutters.)
He also is building a 21-room Hotel Dryce in an old dry ice house near the city’s Cultural District.
Morris was interviewed in a pre-recorded session by chamber president Brandom Gengelbach, and the sit-down discussion was played for several hundred chamber members taking part in the otherwise-live event on their computers.
“For so long, as a city ... people think we’re just one thing: cowboys,” Morris continued. “And we are, but we’re more than that. As much as we’re Cowtown, we’re Funkytown, too. I hope people can see us as a functional city, a dynamic city. It’s not perfect, but it wants to be better.”
Gengelbach congratulated Morris for the show, which he called “a new opportunity for you to showcase your hometown.”
He said the idea for “Self-Employed” began about two years ago, after Morris was featured in one of a series of promotional videos for Visit Fort Worth. Representatives of the new Magnolia Network liked what they saw on the video and asked Morris if he would be interested in becoming the focus of a show.
Morris said Magnolia Network is still planning to launch in 2021, “hopefully next spring.”
“We’re getting to learn how there’s entrepreneurs will deal with COVID,” he said. “In some capacity, we had to pivot and learn new ways of operating businesses.”
“I would love for someone to be watching this show in Knoxville, Tenn., and say, you know, I’m going to open my second location in Fort Worth, Texas. We welcome that growth and more entrepreneurship.”
