After nearly three decades, the Boston-produced “Antiques Roadshow” will make its first stop in Maine this summer, thanks to a relatively recent change in the program’s format.
The Emmy-nominated show, now airing its 29th season, will stop in Boothbay on June 18, public television station WGBH announced Monday. Maine will be the 49th state to host the roadshow, leaving Wyoming as the only state not yet featured.
“We want to get to all 50 states and we’ve got to get to Maine,” executive producer Marsha Bemko said on a phone call Tuesday afternoon. For years, the roadshow was filmed inside convention centers across the country, making it difficult to find a suitable location in Maine, she said.
“The convention center you all have in Maine is not big enough for a roadshow,” she said. “That’s the reason Maine’s been ignored up until now. … There just wasn’t a place to do it up there.”
But the show transitioned to a new format for its 23rd season, opting to film in historic landscapes and locations.
The exact filming location will be announced in the coming weeks, as will details about which appraisers will be stopping in Maine, Bemko said. Each city will be assigned roughly 70 appraisal experts, all of whom are volunteers, she said.
“It’s kind of like summer camp for big kids,” she said. “(The appraisers are) antique geeks, and they love seeing stuff, and they love discovering things.”
Boothbay will be one of five stops featured in the show’s 30th tour, which also stops in Savannah, Georgia; St. Louis; Salt Lake City and Charlevoix, Michigan, the station said. Each visit will yield three episodes. This summer’s tour will be included in season 30, which airs on PBS in 2026.
Bemko said she expects to see a varied mixture of local items and others that traveled to Maine from across the country.
“Things that are made (in Maine) stay there,” she said. “But we’re a great big country, and good stuff has feet. So we will as likely see Hawaiian bowls in Boothbay as we will in Hawaii.”
There are 2,000 pairs of tickets up for grabs, Bemko said.
Guests will be able to bring two items for appraisal, and only one pair of tickets is available per household, the station said.
Tickets are available via a sweepstakes, which runs through March 24, and a few will also be distributed by Maine Public, she said. There is also a separate social media sweepstakes that ends Feb. 13.
A handful of additional “early bird” tickets will also be awarded to individuals with especially compelling items who submit a brief write-up of their backstory; those tickets are selected by the show’s appraisers and producers, Bemko said.
Entries to the roadshow are timed between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and Bemko said visitors should expect to wait an hour or two to have their items evaluated. But the exact wait time will likely depend on what types of items people bring and how quickly filming goes throughout the day, she said.
There will be no viewing area for those without tickets, Bemko said.
She encouraged anyone who might have something to share to consider attending, even if it may not seem valuable.
“Here’s what I say to the people who say they have nothing: I don’t believe you. You have something,” Bemko said. “Maybe you’re not going to get big money news, but you’ll have a chance to come to the show and learn a little bit more about what you do have.”
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