Antiques Roadshow (American TV program)


Antiques Roadshow is an American television program broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service Public television stations. The program features local antiques owners who bring in items to be appraised by experts. Provenance, history, and value of the items are discussed. Based on the original British Antiques Roadshow, which premiered in 1979, the American version first aired in 1997. When taping locations are decided, they are announced on the program's website raising the profile of various small to mid-size cities, such as Billings, Montana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Bismarck, North Dakota; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Rapid City, South Dakota. Antiques Roadshow has been nominated 16 times for a Primetime Emmy.
During 2005, the American version of Antiques Roadshow produced its own spinoff called Antiques Roadshow FYI, a half-hour program that followed the fate of items appraised in the parent show and provided additional information on antiques and collecting.

History

Creation and premiere

Antiques Roadshow is the American version of the British Broadcasting Corporation program of the same name, which premiered as a special in 1977 and began airing as a regular series in the United Kingdom in 1979. The public television station in Boston, Massachusetts, WGBH-TV, created the American version in 1996 under a license from the BBC. The first American episodes were taped in 1996 and broadcast on PBS in 1997. WGBH-TV produces the show.
In 2001, PBS began airing the original BBC version of Antiques Roadshow in the United States. In the United States, the BBC version is titled Antiques Roadshow UK to differentiate it from the American version.

Hosts

The first host of the American version of Antiques Roadshow was antiques expert Chris Jussel. He hosted the program from 1997 to 2000. He was followed by contemporary art expert Dan Elias, who took over after Jussel's departure and hosted the program from 2001 to 2003. Good Morning America correspondent Lara Spencer replaced Elias as the host, and she hosted from 2004 to 2005. Actor, television personality, and game show host Mark L. Walberg hosted the program from 2006 to 2019. Coral Peña, billed as the narrator rather than host, took over in Season 24, which was broadcast in 2020.

Format

Seasons 1–19

During the first 19 seasons, each episode began with an on-camera introduction by the host followed by footage of the taping location while the host identified the location — a hotel ballroom, convention center, civic arena, or similar facility — in a voiceover. The taping in each city was split into three one-hour episodes, e.g., "Boise Hour 1," "Chattanooga Hour 2," or "Raleigh Hour 3." Various two- to four-minute-long segments of people talking about their item and their appraisers talking about the provenance, history, and value of the item followed, interspersed with several brief informal appraisals, lasting about a minute or so and called over-the-shoulder appraisals.
In a several-minute "field segment" about halfway through each episode, the host joined one of the show′s appraisers to tour a museum or historic site near the episode′s taping location, where the appraiser discussed antiques at the site with the host and estimated their value. Each episode ended with the host wrapping things up on camera. In the show's early seasons, the episodes ended with the Antiques Roadshow crew getting ready to turn the studio lights off, and take down the set. In seasons 5 through 7, a semi truck drove by. In later seasons, the closing credits featuring the crew taking down the set was discontinued, and was replaced by a "Feedback Booth," a series of clips of people talking about their experience at Antiques Roadshow that rolls during the credits. A "Hidden Treasures" segment consisting of two additional appraisals followed the credits.

Seasons 20-22

In Season 20, which aired in 2016, a format change occurred. Although the conventional and "over-the-shoulder" appraisals and the Feedback Booth continued as before, the show adopted a new logo, new graphics for its opening and closing credits, and a new set, and the role of the host was reduced significantly. The host no longer appeared on camera, instead merely introducing and closing each episode in a voiceover. The mid-show field segment featuring the host and an appraiser at a local museum or historic site was dropped. In addition, each episode included several quick "snapshot" appraisals; in this new type of appraisal, no appraiser appeared on camera, and instead a guest quickly described his or her object to the camera and a still image of the object followed that included a graphic of the object′s appraised value. The Feedback booth survived, but the post-episode "Hidden Treasures" segment disappeared for a time, although it later returned. The taping in each city continued to be split into three one-hour episodes.
In 2016, Antiques Roadshow executive producer Marsha Bemko explained the reasons for the Season 20 changes. The old set, in use since the filming of Season 9 in 2004, had reached the end of its useful life and employed what she viewed as outdated graphics generated using outdated technology, so she used the design and construction of a new set to allow the show to incorporate more modern graphics. The new logo employed the new set′s graphics as did the opening credits, which also were changed to reflect a feeling of Antiques Roadshow traveling along a road, in contrast to the old credit sequence′s static depiction of objects. Antiques Roadshow had found that its viewers tended to tune out during the mid-show field segment and preferred to watch appraisals, and dropping the field segment and adding "snapshot" appraisals kept viewers watching and allowed them to see about a dozen additional appraisals per episode.

Season 23 to present

The last three episodes of Season 22 unveiled another format change which became the standard format for all episodes beginning with Season 23, televised in 2019. As the British version of the show had done over a decade earlier, Antiques Roadshow moved from taping episodes in convention centers and ballrooms to taping them at historic sites, such as mansions, including the first outdoor segments ever recorded for the show. Interspersed among the standard, over-the-shoulder, and snapshot appraisals were brief vignettes describing the history and features of the historic site or discussing people who had once lived in or had founded or funded the site. Although the host remained entirely off camera throughout each episode, he served as a narrator for these segments in addition to opening and closing each episode. The Feedback Booth continued to air at the end of each episode, and taping at each site was still split into three one-hour episodes.
Although it remained popular — drawing a cumulative audience of 8 million per week — and enjoyed significant support among PBS donors, the show′s viewership measured in terms of household season average had declined 5 percent from the 2016–2017 television season to the 2017–2018 season and 21 percent since the 2012–2013 season, probably because its long-running format was beginning to become stale. Bemko explained in 2018 that the new format, in combination with the changes made for Season 20 three years earlier, was designed to refresh the show and improve its pacing.
Walberg left the show after Season 23 aired in 2019. Coral Peña took over the job of performing each episode′s voiceovers in Season 24, broadcast in 2020, and she was billed as the show′s narrator rather than its host. With the premiere of Season 24, new half-hour Recut episodes were added ; these episodes served as one of the replacement programs for Nightly Business Report, which aired its final episode in December 2019.
Plans for the 2020 tour to film Season 25, scheduled to air in 2021, were disrupted by the onset of the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic. On March 17, 2020, before the first tour stop, the entire 2020 tour was postponed indefinitely.

''Antiques Roadshow FYI''

During 2005, PBS broadcast Antiques Roadshow FYI, a short-lived spinoff of Antiques Roadshow. The weekly half-hour show, hosted by then-Antiques Roadshow host Lara Spencer, provided information on items shown on previous episodes of Antiques Roadshow, as well as additional information on antiques and collecting provided by Antiques Roadshow appraisers.

Production

Each spring and summer, the Antiques Roadshow production team and appraisers make an annual tour, visiting various cities in the United States.. The local PBS station usually serves as host for each tour stop. Taping in each location lasts one day, and episodes drawn from that day are broadcast the following year.
During the first 21 seasons and for most of the 22nd season, production followed a routine, predictable pattern, with all taping occurring indoors in a convention center, hotel ballroom, or similar venue. The production team selected cities for the annual tour based on several factors, including the requirement of a minimum of of space to accommodate the tour event. Most filming in these venues could be accomplished by placing cameras in a central location and simply spinning them around to capture various appraisals.
In 2017, when during the 22nd season the show moved to taping at historic sites and began recording outdoor appraisals for the first time, production became more complicated. The venues were far more variable than convention centers and ballrooms and cameras, rather than operating mostly from a central location, were required to roam the venue to capture appraisals at various locations around the property. The move to outdoor appraisals required contingency planning in case of bad weather. Preproduction work also became more extensive and demanding. Producers had a large database of convention centers and ballrooms suitable for Antiques Roadshow that they had accumulated in earlier years, but had no familiarity with historic sites or their availability or suitability for an Antiques Roadshow tour stop, and negotiations with owners and proprietors of taping sites also sometimes were more complicated than those with convention centers or ballroom venues. Executive producer Marsha Bemko credited the producers of the BBC version of the show, which had been taping at historic sites and outdoors for over a decade by the time the American show began to do it, for playing an important role as advisers to her team as the American show switched to the new format.
Tickets to attend each tour stop are free, but are provided only to preselected people and on a random basis. Tickets are not available at the tour venue on the day of event. To request tickets, prospective appraisees must fill out a form on the show′s official website. Each visitor is guaranteed a free appraisal, whether or not his or her appraisal is recorded for television. During the years of visiting convention centers and ballrooms, Antiques Roadshow distributed 5,000 tickets at each tour stop. During the first tour visiting historic sites, the number of tickets was cut back to 2,500 per tour stop, although visitors were allowed to bring two items each so that the number of appraisals did not drop. In later years, the number of tickets per stop increased again.
Upon arrival on filming day, each visitor checks in at a designated time and is directed to a line to wait in to see an appraiser who can assess his or her object. At each tour stop, about 150 of the 5,000 appraisals are filmed, and of these about 30 eventually appear on television. If an appraiser chooses an object for filming, the visitor may wait between 30 minutes and two hours before his or her segment is filmed.
Regardless of whether taping occurs indoors at convention centers or outdoors at historic sites, the number of new episodes broadcast the following season depends on the number of locations visited on the annual tour. A five-location tour usually results in 24 to 26 new episodes the following season.

Appraisers

About 70 appraisers work at each tour stop. They are volunteers; Antiques Roadshow does not pay them for their services, nor does it compensate them for any of their travel expenses, providing them only with a free breakfast and lunch on each filming day. Appraisers neither buy nor sell items during an Antiques Roadshow tour stop.
Only three producers are on site for any tour stop, and although they circulate to identify items that may be of interest on the show, seeking objects which probably will be the most entertaining to air on the program regardless of their assessed value, they rely heavily on the appraisers to find interesting objects and pitch them to the producers as worthy of filming. Appraisers thus play a vital role in determining which objects are filmed for potential use in an Antiques Roadshow episode. Given the amount of money they spend on travel to participate in an Antiques Roashow tour — often over $10,000 — and the lack of compensation for them by the show, the appraisers have an incentive to get a return on their investment by finding television-worthy objects and getting on camera in the hope of benefiting from the resulting national exposure. Typically, an appraiser gives his or her initial appraisal of an object to the visitor based on knowledge he or she already has, but appraisers usually take advantage of the delay between identifying an object of interest for television and the filming of a segment on it to conduct further research to find additional interesting information on the object and to make sure he or she has the details about it right for the filmed appraisal.

2001 fraud incident

In 1999, a jury awarded a descendant of Confederate Army General George Pickett a US$800,000 judgment against military artifacts dealer Russ Pritchard III, who appeared on Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser, for fraudulently undervaluing Pickett memorabilia, purchasing the items, and then reselling them at a large profit. At the time, Antiques Roadshow producers decided to keep Pritchard on the show, believing that the jury award did not have an impact on his ability to appraise items on Antiques Roadshow. In March 2000, however, revelations that both Pritchard and George Juno — another military artifacts dealer and Antiques Roadshow appraiser and Pritchard′s business partner at the company American Ordnance Preservation Association — had staged a fraudulent appraisal in 1997 led the show to sever ties with them. In March 2001, the two men were accused of using their Antiques Roadshow appearances to establish a reputation as experts in American Civil War artifacts and memorabilia by making phony appraisals designed to lure unsuspecting owners of Civil War antiques to do business with their company, subsequently defrauding their victims of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Both men were indicted in March 2001 on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, witness tampering, and giving false testimony, and additional indictments followed as other fraudulent activities came to light. Juno pleaded guilty in May 2001, as did Pritchard in December 2001. Both were sentenced to prison terms in 2002.

Highest appraisals

The following ten items are recognized as the most valuable items featured on the American Antiques Roadshow:
SOURCE
SeasonHostBroadcast YearTaped YearLocation Miscellaneous
1Chris Jussel19971996Albuquerque, New Mexico
Chicago
College Park, Maryland
Concord, Massachusetts
Denver, Colorado
Durham, North Carolina
Greenwich, Connecticut
Kansas City, Missouri
Minneapolis
Philadelphia
San Antonio, Texas
Seattle
Southfield, Michigan
The first season and Jussel's first year as host. The 13 taping locations are the most in a single season in the show′s history.
2Chris Jussel19981997Atlanta
Cincinnati
Dallas
Nashville, Tennessee
Phoenix, Arizona
Pittsburgh
San Francisco
Secaucus, New Jersey
3Chris Jussel19991998Hartford, Connecticut
Houston, Texas
Los Angeles
Louisville, Kentucky
Milwaukee
Portland, Oregon
Richmond, Virginia
Rochester, New York
4Chris Jussel20001999Baltimore, Maryland
Birmingham, Alabama
Columbus, Ohio
Des Moines, Iowa
Providence, Rhode Island
Salt Lake City
Tampa, Florida
Toronto
Jussel's last year as host. The Toronto episodes, taped in Canada, were the only ones ever taped outside of the United States.
5Dan Elias20012000Austin, Texas
Charleston, South Carolina
Denver
Las Vegas
Madison, Wisconsin
Sacramento, California
St. Louis, Missouri
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Elias's first year as host. Boston also was a taping site in 2000, but the Boston episodes were not broadcast until the 2002 season.
6Dan Elias20022001Boston
Indianapolis
Miami
New Orleans
New York City
San Diego
Tucson, Arizona
The Boston segment was taped in the summer of 2000.
7Dan Elias20032002Albuquerque
Charlotte, North Carolina
Cleveland, Ohio
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Kansas City
Seattle
Elias's last year as host.
8Lara Spencer20042003Chicago
Oklahoma City
San Francisco
Savannah, Georgia
Spencer's first year as host. The four taping locations were the fewest in show's history. The first season to have specials; the two specials were Roadshow Favorites and Greatest Finds.
9Lara Spencer20052004Memphis, Tennessee
Omaha, Nebraska
Portland
Reno, Nevada
St. Paul, Minnesota
Spencer's last year as host. This season's specials were Tomorrow's Antiques and Wild Things! Spencer also hosted the spin-off program Antiques Roadshow FYI, which only aired during this season.
10Mark Walberg20062005Bismarck, North Dakota
Houston
Los Angeles
Providence
Tampa
Walberg's first year as host. This season's specials were Fame and Fortune and Roadshow Remembers.
11Mark Walberg20072006Honolulu, Hawaii
Milwaukee
Mobile, Alabama
Salt Lake City
Tucson
First season to tape outside of the continental United States while still remaining in the United States. This season's specials were Jackpot! and Unique Antiques.
12Mark Walberg20082007Baltimore
Las Vegas
Louisville
Orlando, Florida
San Antonio
Spokane, Washington
This season's specials were Politically Collect and Trash to Treasure.
13Mark Walberg20092008Chattanooga, Tennessee
Dallas
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Hartford
Palm Springs, California
Wichita, Kansas
This season's specials were Big and Little and Relative Riches.
14Mark Walberg20102009Atlantic City, New Jersey
Denver
Madison
Phoenix
Raleigh, North Carolina
San Jose, California
This season's specials were Naughty or Nice and Simply the Best.
15Mark Walberg20112010Billings, Montana
Biloxi, Mississippi
Des Moines
Miami Beach, Florida
San Diego
Washington, D.C.
First season to tape in the nation's capital. This season was the first to have more than two specials. This season's specials were Forever Young, Junk in the Trunk, and Tasty Treasures.
16Mark Walberg20122011Atlanta
El Paso, Texas
Eugene, Oregon
Minneapolis
Pittsburgh
Tulsa
First season to have Vintage specials, each of which repeated an episode from an earlier season and compared each original appraisal with an update of the object′s appraised value. This season's specials included Cats & Dogs, Greatest Gifts, Junk in the Trunk 2, Vintage Atlanta, Vintage Houston, Vintage Phoenix, Vintage Pittsburgh, Vintage San Francisco, and Vintage Secaucus.
17Mark Walberg20132012Boston
Cincinnati
Corpus Christi, Texas
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Rapid City, South Dakota
Seattle
This season's specials included Finders Keepers, Survivors, Vintage Hartford, Vintage Los Angeles, Vintage Louisville, Vintage Milwaukee, Vintage Richmond, and Vintage Rochester.
18Mark Walberg20142013Anaheim, California
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Boise, Idaho
Detroit, Michigan
Jacksonville, Florida
Kansas City
Knoxville, Tennessee
Richmond
First season since 2001 to tape in at least eight cities. This season's specials included The Boomer Years, Junk in the Trunk 4.1, Junk in the Trunk 4.2, Manor House Treasures, Vintage Baltimore, Vintage Columbus, Vintage Des Moines, Vintage Providence, Vintage Salt Lake City, Vintage Tampa, and Vintage Toronto.
19Mark Walberg20152014New York City
Austin, Texas
Bismarck, North Dakota
Birmingham, Alabama
Santa Clara, California
Charleston, West Virginia
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Chicago
The last season in which the host appeared on camera, and the last to include weekly mid-show field segment in which the host toured a local museum or historic site with one of the appraisers to discuss antiques. This season's specials included Celebrating Black Americana, Junk in the Trunk 5.1, Junk in the Trunk 5.2, Treasures on the Move, Vintage Charleston, Vintage Denver, Vintage Las Vegas, Vintage Madison, Vintage Sacramento, Vintage St. Louis, and Vintage Tulsa.
20Mark Walberg20162015Spokane
Little Rock
Charleston, South Carolina
Tucson
Omaha
Cleveland
The show adopted a new logo, new set, new graphics, and new opening credits this season, and unveiled a new format in which the host provided voiceovers at the show′s beginning and end but did not appear on camera. The weekly mid-show field segment in which the host toured a local museum or historic site with one of the appraisers to discuss antiques was discontinued, and brief "snapshot" appraisals of items of lesser value debuted. This season's specials included The Best of 20, Celebrating Asian-Pacific Heritage, Mansion Masterpieces, Junk in the Trunk 6, Vintage Boston, Vintage Indianapolis, Vintage Miami, Vintage New Orleans, Vintage New York, Vintage San Diego, and Vintage Tucson.
21Mark Walberg20172016Fort Worth, Texas
Indianapolis, Indiana
Palm Springs, California
Salt Lake City, Utah
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Orlando, Florida
This season's specials included The Civil War Years, Junk in the Trunk 7, Our 50 States Part One, Our 50 States Part Two, Vintage Albuquerque, Vintage Austin, Vintage Charlotte, Vintage Cleveland, Vintage Hot Springs, Vintage Kansas City, and Vintage Seattle.
22Mark Walberg20182017Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
New Orleans
St. Louis, Missouri
Portland
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Newport, Rhode Island
The final three episodes of the season, filmed in Newport and shot inside and on the grounds of Rosecliff, unveiled another new format in which the show was taped for the first time at a historic house or other historic site rather than in a convention center or ballroom, and included appraisals taped outdoors for the first time, although plans for all the appraisals to take place outdoors were spoiled by rain generated by Hurricane Jose offshore, and most of the appraisals took place inside the mansion or in tents erected on the mansion's grounds. Another new feature of the Newport episodes was the interspersing among appraisals of frequent pauses for segments narrated off-camera by the host about the mansion's construction, history, and features, as well as those of neighboring mansions.
This season's specials included Celebrating Latino Heritage, Junk in the Trunk 8, Kooky & Spooky, Somethings Wild, Vintage Birmingham, Vintage Chicago, Vintage Oklahoma City, Vintage Omaha, Vintage Portland, Vintage San Francisco, and Vintage Savannah.
23Mark Walberg20192018Rochester, Michigan
Sarasota, Florida
San Diego
Tulsa
Louisville
Walberg′s last season as host. The format introduced with the previous season′s Newport episodes became standard for all episodes, with each set of three episodes centering around appraisals taking place at an historic site and including frequent brief segments relating facts about the features and history of the site itself. The buildings featured were Meadow Brook Hall outside Rochester in Rochester Hills, Michigan; Ca' d'Zan in Sarasota; the Hotel del Coronado outside San Diego in Coronado, California; the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa; and Churchill Downs in Louisville. The Churchill Downs episodes were broadcast in May 2019 to give them a tie-in with the 2019 Kentucky Derby, which was run that month at Churchill Downs.
For the first time, the season's Vintage episodes included taping locations featured in a Vintage episode broadcast during a previous season, denoting these by including the year of the current season′s Vintage broadcast in the episode′s title. This season's specials included Extraordinary Finds, The Gen X Years, Junk in the Trunk 9, Out of this World, Vintage Bismarck, Vintage Houston 2019, Vintage Memphis, Vintage Providence 2019, Vintage Reno, Vintage St. Paul, and Vintage Tampa 2019.
Extraordinary Finds, which aired on November 4, 2019, was the 500th episode of Antiques Roadshow.
24Coral Peña20202019Phoenix
San Antonio
Sacramento
West Fargo, North Dakota
Winterthur, Delaware
Peña′s first season with the show; she was billed as the narrator of each episode rather than its host. The sites featured were Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix; the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio; the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento; Bonanzaville, USA in West Fargo; and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Winterthur.
This season's specials included Treasure Fever, Women's Work, Vintage Honolulu, Vintage Los Angeles 2020, Vintage Milwaukee, Vintage Mobile, Vintage Philadelphia, and Vintage Salt Lake City.
This season introduced the first Antiques Roadshow Recut episodes, which were the show′s first half-hour episodes. Each Recut episode consisted of material previously broadcast in a full-length episode of the same name during an earlier season. This season′s Recut episodes were Recut: Politically Collect, Part 1, Recut: Politically Collect, Part 2, Recut Newport, Part 1, Recut Newport, Part 2, Recut Newport, Part 3, and Recut Newport, Part 4.
2520212020Boston
Estes Park, Colorado
Nashville
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Williamsburg, Virginia
The sites featured will be the Boston Public Library in Boston, The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Cheekwood in Nashville, Milner Plaza at Museum Hill in Santa Fe, and Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg. However, on March 17, 2020, the entire 2020 tour was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taping locations by state or province

Forty-five U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and one Canadian province have hosted Antiques Roadshow tour stops. The broadcast years of the stops follow :
State/ProvinceBroadcast Season
Alabama3
Alaska0
Arizona6
Arkansas2
California14
Colorado4
Connecticut3
Delaware1
District of Columbia1
Florida8
Georgia3
Hawaii1
Idaho1
Illinois3
Indiana2
Iowa2
Kansas1
Kentucky3
Louisiana3
Maine0
Massachusetts4
Maryland3
Michigan4
Minnesota4
Mississippi1
Missouri5
Montana1
Nebraska2
Nevada3
New Hampshire0
New Jersey2
New Mexico4
New York3
North Carolina3
North Dakota3
Ohio5
Oklahoma4
Oregon4
Pennsylvania5
Rhode Island3
South Carolina3
South Dakota1
Tennessee5
Texas11
Utah3
Vermont0
Virginia4
Washington4
West Virginia1
Wisconsin5
Wyoming0
Ontario 1