Why Did Mark L. Walberg Leave 'Antiques Roadshow'?

Reality television has been around for a long time. But one of the first shows that gave people a peek into the lives of others was Antiques Roadshow. Viewers were able to see the interesting trinkets and items people held onto and then come to find out they're worth a whole lot of money – sometimes. The show has been around for a long time, but fans wonder what caused the host, Mark L. Walberg, to leave the show. Here's what we know.

Antiques Roadshow has been on PBS for many years, first airing in 1997 in the United States. Through it, several different hosts have taken the role of introducing the guests who want to have an item or two appraised by the experts. 

The American version's first host was antiques expert Chris Jussel, who hosted Seasons 1 through 4 and ended his Antiques Roadshow tenure in 2000. Art expert Dan Elias took over for the next two seasons (leaving in 2003), and was replaced by Lara Spencer. The latter is also the correspondent for Good Morning America. She only hosted for two seasons before leaving the show in 2005.  

That's when Mark L. Walberg (not to be confused with the actor by the same-but-differently-spelled name) stepped into the hosting role on Antiques Roadshow. The television personality and game show host joined the team in 2006 for Season 10 and was the longest-running host of the American version of the show. 

For Season 20, which aired in 2016, the show did a major overhaul of everything from the set to the graphics in order to bring in more viewers, specifically younger ones. According to an interview executive producer Marsha Bemko did with A.V. Club, both the set and the show's changes were out of necessity. 

"I'll be very candid with you. Some of it was a very practical need when it came to the set. We redid the set, and we redid our graphics package, and we also did — as you have noticed — make some changes to the interior of the show," she said.

"For a very practical reason, the set — we actually have to get approved by the fire department when we get there. Everything has to be fire-retardant. The set was literally beginning to fall apart [to the point] where we weren't going to meet the standards we needed to meet with our fireproofing, et cetera. We were at the end of that set's life. And that set had been with us since Season 9."  

With those changes came a reduction in the host role, so Mark wasn't as visible as he was in previous seasons. Instead of being on set, he was the voiceover for several of the transition sections. Mark ultimately left the role at the end of Season 23, but not because of anything he did or didn't do. It was simply a transition away from hosting in general. 

In 2019 (after Season 23), the show went without a host, and Coral Peña joined the show as the narrator for Season 24, rather than the host.

Mark left Antiques Roadshow but continued in the career of hosting, appearing on USA Network'sTemptation Island.