Antiques Roadshow (American TV program)

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. == Release ==

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 (Seasons 1 through 4). He was followed by contemporary art expert Dan Elias, who took over after Jussel's departure and hosted the program from 2001 to 2003 (Seasons 5 through 7). Good Morning America correspondent Lara Spencer replaced Elias as the host, and she hosted from 2004 to 2005 (Seasons 8 and 9). Actor, television personality, and game show host Mark L. Walberg hosted the program from 2006 to 2019 (Seasons 10 through 23). Actress Coral Peña, billed as the narrator rather than host, has narrated the show since Season 24, which was broadcast in 2020. ==Overview==

Seasons 1–19 During the first 19 seasons (1997–2015), each episode began with an on-camera introduction by the host (Chris Jussel, Dan Elias, Lara Spencer, and Mark L. Walberg) 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 The mid-show field segment featuring the host and an appraiser at a local museum or historic site was dropped. Instead, Antiques Roadshow appraisers visited various celebrities during 2020 to discuss and appraise their antiques, resulting in four new episodes with this format. With no other new footage available, Season 25, which aired in 2021, otherwise consisted entirely of specials made up of clips from earlier seasons. The 2021 tour, filmed for broadcast in 2022, returned to appraisals of the antiques of everyday people, but not to appraisal segments filmed during crowded events. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, guests at each tour stop were invited to have their appraisals filmed on a closed set. The Feedback Booth — which previously featured guests who had not appeared on camera during the tour stop — returned, but consisted solely of guests whose appraisals had appeared in the episode. ==Spinoffs==

Antiques Roadshow FYI During 2005, PBS broadcast Antiques Roadshow FYI, a magazine-style spinoff of Antiques Roadshow. Then-Antiques Roadshow host Lara Spencer also hosted Antiques Roadshow FYI, a weekly half-hour show which provided information on items shown on episodes of Antiques Roadshow as well as additional information on antiques and collecting provided by Antiques Roadshow appraisers. Each episode began with a "Roadshow Updates" segment which featured an object appraised on Antiques Roadshow and revealed what had happened to it since its appraisal. In "Fascinating Features" segments, correspondent Clay Reynolds traveled around the United States, either visiting antique shows, auctions, thrift stores, and flea markets to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the world of antiques or profiling collectors and collectibles. In "Tips" segments, Antiques Roadshow appraisers provided expert advice on antiques and collectibles, including information about the antiques market, auctions, antiques dealers, and appraisals. Each episode concluded with a "Missing Masterpieces" segment in which an Antiques Roadshow appraiser told a legendary story of a great object that had disappeared. The February 9 episode had a romantic theme to tie it in with that year's upcoming Valentine's Day holiday, serving as one of the replacement programs for Nightly Business Report, which aired its final episode in December 2019. Antiques Roadshow Recut aired from 2020 through 2022, then returned to the air in 2024. Its 30-minute episodes consist of footage from full-length Antiques Roadshow episodes from previous seasons, "recut" to provide a fast-paced series of appraisals. Like a full-length Antiques Roadshow episode, each episode of Antiques Roadshow Recut concludes with a "Feedback Booth" segment, followed by a "Hidden Treasures" segment after the closing credits. ==Production==

Each spring and summer — except in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation — the Antiques Roadshow production team and appraisers make an annual tour, visiting various cities in the United States. (In 1999 the tour made its only foreign stop, visiting Canada to film in Toronto, Ontario.) 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, civic arena, 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 museums and 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, ballrooms, and civic centers suitable for Antiques Roadshow that they had accumulated in earlier years, but had no familiarity with museums and 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 their appraisal is recorded for television. During the years of visiting convention centers, ballrooms, and civic centers Antiques Roadshow distributed 5,000 tickets at each tour stop. During the first tour visiting museums and 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 their 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 their segment is filmed. Regardless of whether taping occurs indoors at convention centers, ballrooms, and civic centers or outdoors at museums and 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. Fraud incidents (1997–2001) In 1999, a jury awarded a descendant of Confederate Army General George Pickett a (equivalent to $million in ) 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 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. 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: • In the first season (filmed 1996 in Secaucus, New Jersey), a John Seymour & Son card table, an example of 18th century federal furniture, was appraised at $200,000–$300,000; the piece was sold at auction, a few months later, for $541,500. • A season 17 episode (filmed 2012 in Corpus Christi, Texas) featured a 1904 Diego Rivera oil painting, El Albañil, appraised at $800,000 to $1 million. In a 2018 Antiques Roadshow special, the original appraiser acknowledged changes in the market for works by Rivera, and updated the appraisal to a value of $1.2 million to $2.2 million. • On July 23, 2011, a collection of Chinese cups carved from rhinoceros horns, believed to date from the late 17th or early 18th century, was valued at $1–1.5 million by Lark E. Mason, at a show location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. • Four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon ceramics dating to the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736–95), including a large bowl crafted for the emperor, were given a conservative auction estimate of up to $1.07 million by Asian arts appraiser, James Callahan. However the items sold at auction for only $494,615. • A trove of 1870s Boston Red Stockings (now the Atlanta Braves) memorabilia including players' signatures and rare baseball cards was appraised at $1,000,000 for insurance purposes in New York City on January 5, 2015, by Leila Dunbar. • An Alexander Calder mobile, , was appraised in Miami, Florida, at $400,000 to $1,000,000 by Chris Kennedy. • A 1937 Clyfford Still oil painting, valued at $500,000, was appraised by Alasdair Nichol on the first episode of its 13th season on January 5, 2009. • A Norman Rockwell oil painting was appraised at $500,000 in 2010 in Eugene, Oregon by painting and drawings expert Nan Chisholm. • An unused 1971 Rolex Oyster Daytona Chronograph was valued at $500,000-$700,000 in January 2020 at West Fargo, North Dakota • An Andrew Wyeth watercolor painting was appraised at $450,000 in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2010, by Nan Chisholm. • A season 14 episode (filmed 2009 at a stop in Phoenix, Arizona) featured a collection of Charles Schulz' Peanuts comic strip art, which was appraised at $450,000. • In 2001, a mid-19th-century Navajo Ute First Phase blanket, believed once to have been owned by Kit Carson, was valued in Tucson, Arizona between $350,000 and $500,000; the appraiser, Donald Ellis, called it a "national treasure". • A season 9 episode (filmed 2004 in St. Paul, Minnesota) featured a 1914 Patek Philippe pocketwatch, appraised at $250,000; after the manufacturer provided further research, discovering that the watch was a one-off production, it was re-appraised at 2-3 million dollars. • In 2022, a Chinese celadon dragon charger from the Yongzheng period was valued between $80,000 and $120,000 in Hamilton, New Jersey; the appraiser, Richard Cervantes of Doyle New York, called it an "absolute masterpiece". At auction that same year, the piece sold for $390,000. ==Seasons==

NOTE: Locations are presented in alphabetical order, not in the chronological order of the season's tour stops. ==Filming locations==

Forty-nine U.S. states except Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and one Canadian province have hosted Antiques Roadshow tour stops. In 2020, Antiques Roadshow made no tour stops because of the COVID-19 pandemic; the four Celebrity Edition episodes filmed in 2020 and aired in 2021 during Season 25 did not consist of tour stops, and are not included below. The broadcast years of tour stops follow. The tapings for each stop on a season's itinerary took place the previous year with the exception of the 2002 Massachusetts episodes, which were taped two years earlier. ==Accolades==