Mark l. Walberg to Host PBS’s Antiques Roadshow - Veteran TV Host and Producer Joins Hit Series for Tenth Anniversary Season
Mark L. Walberg will make his PBS debut when he becomes host of public broadcasting’s top-rated series this summer. Walberg is well known to audiences for his roles as host and talent on some of America’s most talked about game and reality shows. He replaces current Roadshow host Lara Spencer.
Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 8, 2005 -- Antiques Roadshow producer WGBH Boston
announced today that Mark L. Walberg will make his PBS debut when he becomes
host of public broadcasting’s top-rated series this summer. Walberg is well
known to audiences for his roles as host and talent on some of America’s most
talked about game and reality shows. He replaces current Roadshow host Lara
Spencer when the series begins production of its tenth anniversary season with
an appraisal event June 18 in Providence, Rhode Island. Episodes featuring
Walberg will be broadcast on PBS beginning January 2006. Visit Antiques Roadshow
online at http://www.pbs.org/roadshow.
Antiques Roadshow and
Antiques Roadshow FYI host Lara Spencer will continue to appear on episodes
broadcast in 2005. Spencer is stepping down as host of both series, citing the
increased demands of her responsibilities on Paramount's "The
Insider."
“We’re very fortunate to be able to pass the torch to someone
as experienced and capable as Mark,” said Antiques Roadshow executive producer
Marsha Bemko. “We’re sad to say goodbye to Lara, but grateful she was able to
contribute her enormous talents to Roadshow and to the successful launch of our
spin-off, Antiques Roadshow FYI.
Walberg started his television career as
an assistant at Dick Clark Productions and quickly moved on to host a sports
magazine show on ESPN. It was there that the late Brandon Tartikoff noticed his
work, and that association produced the nationally syndicated "The Mark Walberg
Show." Since then, Walberg has hosted and been featured in an array of popular
talk, reality competition, and game shows, including home improvement
competitions "The Mansion" and "House Rules" and knowledge quiz shows "Test the
Nation" and "Russian Roulette"—and as a contestant playing for charity—won "The
Weakest Link." He also hosted the relationship challenge "Temptation Island." He
recently appeared in the ABC Family Movie of the Week "I Want to Marry Ryan
Banks." Realizing a long-held ambition to produce, Walberg created and produced
"Sunday Dinner," the first original series for the Odyssey Network, with
long-time friend and television personality Mark DeCarlo ("Curb Your
Enthusiasm," "Jimmy Neutron").
Walberg admits to being a long-time
Antiques Roadshow fan who watches with his family. “With my twenty-year career
in game and quiz shows,” he said, “I know Antiques Roadshow has a winning
formula—the excitement and challenge of finding out how much something is worth
gets viewers to tune in, and along the way they get hooked by all the incredibly
interesting history.”
In addition to his successful television career,
Walberg believes strongly in devoting time to create opportunities for young
people. Currently he is on the Board of Directors of Goodwill of Southern
California and the Board of Managers of the Hollywood/Wilshire YMCA. Both
organizations are instrumental in providing hope and new futures for people who
need help. He also is very involved with The Young Americans, a musical
performance youth group that tours the world offering music workshops in
underserved schools. Says Walberg, “the personal transformation that happens to
people when they are given the ability to express themselves through the
arts—specifically music and dance—is inspiring.”
Walberg and actress-wife
Robbi Morgan Walberg make their home in Los Angeles, where Walberg coaches their
two children’s various little league sports teams.
Antiques Roadshow's
Summer 2005 Tour destinations include Providence, Rhode Island (June 18); Tampa,
Florida (June 25); Houston, Texas (July 16); Bismarck, North Dakota (July 30);
and Los Angeles, California (August 13). Programs taped in those locations will
make up Roadshow’s tenth anniversary broadcast season in 2006. Antiques Roadshow
premiered on PBS in January 1997.
Antiques Roadshow is sponsored by
Toyota and Liberty Mutual Insurance. Additional funding is provided by public
television viewers.
Antiques Roadshow is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.
Executive producer is Marsha Bemko. WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public
broadcasting producer, the source of one-third of PBS’s prime-time lineup as
well as many public radio favorites. WGBH-produced Web sites generate 25% of the
traffic to pbs.org, the most-visited dot-org on the Internet. WGBH is a pioneer
in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media
accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video
descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys,
duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was honored with a special
institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information
visit http://www.wgbh.org.
Antiques Roadshow press materials,
including downloadable photos, are available at http://pbs.org/pressroom and
at http://pressroom.wgbh.org.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb248294.htm