Photo courtesy of PBS
The popular PBS show, Antiques Roadshow, is filmed for a past season. The show is visiting Harrisburg for the first time Saturday to find treasures.

HARRISBURG –It’s show time!

The Antiques Roadshow is making its way to central Pennsylvania for the first time Saturday, with a stop in Harrisburg to kick off the 2017 summer tour.

Executive Producer Marsha Bemko said the show is PBS’ most-watched ongoing series and will be filming for its 22nd season, starting at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center to film three, one-hour episodes. This year’s tour starts on the East Coast and includes other stops in, Green Bay, Wisconsin, St. Louis, New Orleans and Portland, Oregon.

“I am thrilled to kick off the Antiques Roadshow Summer Tour with a first-ever stop in Harrisburg,” Bemko said. “At the event, we will see around 10,000 items, so I am particularly excited to see what surprises are in store for us. I get truly excited because we are getting to make a discovery.”

Bemko said the show is seen by an average of 8.5 million viewers each week on local PBS stations. In each hour-long episode, specialists from the country’s leading auction houses and independent dealers offer free appraisals of antiques and collectibles.

Being on air for more than two decades, Bemko said the show’s longevity and popularity are due to many different reasons.

“It’s like a secret sauce with different ingredients,” she said. “It keeps people watching for different reasons. Antique junkies want to learn one object at a time and hunger for knowledge and it’s smart reality television. You will learn through osmosis and not realize it.”

Having held the show in Philadelphia before, Bemko said she thinks the area will have many wonderful objects to discover just like Philadelphia had in the past.

In April, anyone was able to apply for tickets for the June 3 show. A limited number of ticket recipients were selected at random from all eligible entries for the Harrisburg event.

Now that all the tickets have been distributed, only ticket holders can attend the all-day event hosted by the show and WITF.

Once there, Bemko said the nearly 5,000 ticket holders can bring two items to the country’s specialists to learn about the history and value of each item. If the appraiser feels the treasure would make an interesting TV segment, producers may select that person to be escorted to the Green Room, where they will have makeup applied, sign a release and wait their turn to be on camera.

In addition to the three episodes filmed locally, a special “Junk in the Trunk” show will be produced for the season.

The episodes from the summer tour will air from January 2018 through May 2018 and Bemko said the order of the cities will not be decided until this fall.

Viewers may visit the PBS website this fall to find out the schedule. The 14-time EmmyAward-nominated production airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on local PBS stations.

“It’s so much fun and it’s addictive,” Bemko said. “I’m surprised by the information we discover and it make my heart sing.”