BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW

Every stop on the show’s summer tour is three days, which includes two days for set up and a day to shoot and pack up the set.

The Feedback Booth and other short segments were added when viewers complained that watching the crew break down the set during credits wasn’t all that interesting. Executive producer Marsha Bemko calls the additions “flex elements.” They fill in so that the time of the central appraisals doesn’t have to be adjusted.

The 150 appraisers (75 a city) are all volunteers. They pay for airfare, lodging, and all other expenses — except for breakfast and lunch on the day they tape. Asian art expert Lark Mason is bringing his wife and son to the Tuesday event. Both are volunteers as well. The latter is also an Asian arts expert.

The payoff of the time and financial commitment is the propagation of the brand, Bemko says. Where else are you going to get on-air promotion — in front of millions— for your skills and company?

Fifteen minutes of owners and experts discussing a piece on film has to be edited down to a roughly 3-minute segment for the show.

Bemko is often approached to give tickets to people who lost out in the lottery. While she nearly always says “no,” a woman did approach her in a bathroom once and beg for a ticket through tears. “I thought, ‘If she’s going to cry, I’ll give her a ticket.’”

Fact checking is a must. Bemko calls herself “an old school fact checker.” If an appraiser says it on television, every fact must be confirmed. But the lack of easy to find documentation can take an editor down deep rabbit holes. “You find yourself saying, ‘OMG, I’m spending too much time on this.’ But it’s so interesting.”

Leslie, the Santa Fean who appeared on Season 19, had an item that was valued at $8,000 to $12,000. When the filming was done, she was told to wait for the state police, whose job was to take her and the object to her car. “I was like, ‘Well, who would want this?’” — T.M.M.