NEW YORK.- After three seasons as host of the popular PBS TV program "Antiques Roadshow" Dan Elias is resigning, the program’s producer, WGBH Boston, announced. Elias, who will continue his affiliation with the series in 2003, wants to devote more time to his contemporary art business. "It’s been a great ride and a wonderful opportunity to discover America first-hand through the people, objects, and stories we encountered on the road," Elias said in a statement. "But the demands of television production have been tough to balance with my primary profession as contemporary art dealer." Elias owns Elias Fine Art in Allston, Mass. He joined "Antiques Roadshow" in 2000. Among their plans for the 2004 season, the show’s producers are considering a possible search for a new series host.

Antiques Roadshow remains the most-watched — and arguably the most parodied — primetime series on PBS. "It’s really quite amazing," remarks Peter B. Cook, executive producer of Antiques Roadshow. "Every summer, we hit the road and wonder what we’ll find. But, no matter where the roadshow stops, the crowds show up in droves, and there are always such incredible surprises — valuable, unique, and historically-significant items and terrific personal stories to go along with them." Antiques Roadshow’s 2002 season opener was no exception. At the appraisal event in Tucson, Arizona, a man discovers that his rather plain-looking Navajo blanket is a "national treasure" and one for the Roadshow record books. Appraiser Don Ellis of the Donald Ellis Gallery is flabbergasted when the owner tells him he generally kept the blue-and-white blanket folded over the back of a chair. The appraiser describes it as an extremely rare piece from about 1840 to 1860, hand woven and dyed to be worn by a Ute chief. Appraised at $350,000 to $500,000, the blanket is the most valuable item ever appraised on Antiques Roadshow.