TLDR: Mike Wolfe created American Pickers on History Channel, which premiered in January 2010 and ran for 27 seasons.
His co-host and childhood friend Frank Fritz left the show in 2020, suffered a stroke in 2022, and died on September 30, 2024. Wolfe was at his bedside.
In September 2025, Wolfe and his partner Leticia Cline were involved in a serious car accident in Columbia, Tennessee, that left Cline with life-threatening injuries she is still recovering from.
The Nashville location of Antique Archaeology closed in April 2025. Wolfe launched a new History Channel series, History’s Greatest Picks, in February 2026. He is 61 years old and still picking.
Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz had not spoken in two years. The feud had gone public. Fritz had told interviewers that Wolfe never checked on him after his back surgery. Wolfe had responded that Fritz’s struggles with pain medication and Crohn’s disease were what kept him from returning to the show.
Then Frank Fritz had a stroke in July 2022. Wolfe asked fans for privacy and prayers and said it was not the time to set the record straight. The two reconciled. Wolfe was reported to be at Fritz’s bedside when he died on September 30, 2024, at age 60.
That’s the arc of the most important relationship in American Pickers history. A friendship that predated the show by twenty years, fractured publicly on television, and repaired in the last stretch of one man’s life.
He Started Selling Things He Found in the Trash at Age Six
Mike Wolfe was born in Joliet, Illinois, and grew up in Bettendorf, Iowa, after his mother moved the family there during his childhood. The riverfront junkyards and railroad tracks of the Iowa side of the Mississippi became his playground. He retrieved a bicycle from a neighbor’s trash at age six, cleaned it up, and sold it to another child for five dollars.
That was the first pick.
In the 1970s the word “picker” was largely derogatory, associated with people who combed through refuse out of desperation. Wolfe absorbed the activity anyway, exploring abandoned buildings and retrieving objects from junkyard cars because he found them genuinely interesting rather than because he needed the money. The interest never left.
He raced bicycles competitively through the late 1980s and 1990s, opened a bike shop in Iowa, and financed the shop’s early operations by selling a rare 1934 Harley-Davidson to a collector in Thailand.
In 2000 he founded Antique Archaeology in Le Claire, Iowa, operating out of a former machine shop and spending his days driving back roads, knocking on strangers’ doors, and asking if he could look in their barns.
He Spent Five Years Trying to Get the Show Made
Wolfe began filming his picking trips on a Mini DV camera, balancing it on his van’s dashboard or asking homeowners to film him while he explored their properties.
He pitched the concept for five years.
Discovery passed. TLC passed. The Smithsonian passed. History Channel picked up ten episodes in 2009, looking for something to follow the success of Pawn Stars.
American Pickers premiered on January 18, 2010, to 3.1 million viewers, the highest-rated debut for the network since 2007.
Frank Fritz, his childhood friend and fellow picker, was his co-host. Fritz specialized in toys, oil cans, and advertising items. Wolfe handled motorcycles, bicycles, and signs.
The chemistry was real because the friendship was real. They had known each other for over twenty years before the first episode aired.
Frank Fritz Left and the Show Changed
Fritz’s final appearance on the show was in March 2020. He took a hiatus for back surgery and never returned. In 2021 he told interviewers he had not spoken to Wolfe in two years and that Wolfe had not checked on him after the surgery.
Wolfe eventually said Fritz’s dependency on pain medication following the back surgery and his long battle with Crohn’s disease were what prevented his return.
The full story of what happened to Frank Fritz, including his stroke and death, is covered here. After Fritz’s departure, Wolfe’s brother Robbie and antiques expert Jersey Jon Szalay stepped into the co-host roles. The show continued but the ratings slid. The chemistry that had made the original format work was not something that could be replicated.
Danielle Colby Said the Show Was Done. It Wasn’t.
Danielle Colby has worked with Wolfe since before the show existed, running the office at Antique Archaeology and generating leads for picks. Her role expanded over the seasons into full-time picking of her own.
Wolfe has described her as an ally and she has described their relationship as sibling-like, noting they talk four or five times a week.
In December 2025, on her 50th birthday, Colby announced on social media that the show was “done,” citing a lack of financial support as she prepared to focus on her Ecdysiast Arts Museum in Davenport, Iowa. Wolfe called her immediately.
History Channel clarified the show was on hiatus, not cancelled. Colby later said her comments were from a paycheck standpoint and that Wolfe had reminded her the show is “never over.”
A Drunk Driver Almost Killed His Partner in 2025
On September 12, 2025, Wolfe and his partner Leticia Cline were in a serious car accident in Columbia, Tennessee. The other driver, 76-year-old Lerone Heads, was alleged to have been drunk. Wolfe’s injuries were relatively minor. Cline was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening complications.
Cline sustained a broken jaw in three places, broken ribs, a broken sternum, a collapsed lung, and spinal swelling. By December 2025 she reported being at only 40 percent of what she used to be, with partial facial paralysis, blurry eyesight, and trigeminal neuralgia.
Wolfe has remained a constant presence throughout her rehabilitation. As of mid-2026 her recovery is ongoing.
He Closed the Nashville Store and Retreated to Iowa
In April 2025, Wolfe closed the Nashville location of Antique Archaeology, which had operated for nearly 15 years in the Marathon Motor Works complex.
Reviews in the final years had turned critical, with customers describing the store as a gift shop dominated by branded merchandise rather than genuine antiques, with small signs priced at $1,500 and low inventory of actual picked items.
Wolfe attributed the closure to a desire to spend more time with his family in Le Claire and focus on new creative projects. The original Le Claire location remains open and is the primary physical hub for the Antique Archaeology brand. Fans visiting Iowa can still walk through the shop where the whole operation started.
He Launched a New Show in 2026
In February 2026, Wolfe launched History’s Greatest Picks with Mike Wolfe, an eight-episode series that represents a significant departure from the road-trip format. Rather than driving back roads and knocking on barn doors, Wolfe serves as narrator and curator for stories about legendary artifacts, from vintage cars to pop culture relics.
The series is part of History Channel’s campaign leading up to the 250th anniversary of the United States in July 2026.
The premiere drew 875,000 viewers, making it one of the top three shows on the network. For a man who built his career on spontaneous discovery, the studio format is genuinely new territory. He has described it as uncharted. It appears to be working.
Where Mike Wolfe Is in 2026
Mike Wolfe is 61 years old, based in Le Claire, Iowa, and navigating more change than any period since the show began.
Frank Fritz is gone. The Nashville store is closed. Leticia Cline is still recovering. His daughter Charlie, whose birth with a cleft lip and palate led him to years of work with the charity Operation Smile, is growing up.
He has been picking since he was six years old. He sold a bike he found in the trash for five dollars. He spent five years trying to get a television network to pay attention to what he was doing. He built Antique Archaeology from a former machine shop in Iowa into a brand with two locations and a television show that ran for 27 seasons.
The cameras have changed format. The partner is gone. The Nashville store is locked. But the Le Claire shop is open, the back roads of the Midwest are still full of barns nobody has opened in decades, and Wolfe is still the person who finds them most interesting.
That was always the real story.
