Wake Up, Maine! is a half-hour morning satire and variety show that premiered on July 12, 2025, airing Saturdays at 11 a.m. on Maine's CW (WPXT). It represents the most ambitious collaboration to date between longtime creative partners Luigi Scarcelli and Warren Edgar, marking a culmination of years of parallel work in Portland’s local television and media circles. The show’s existence reflects not only a deep understanding of Maine’s media ecosystem but also a shared desire between its creators to challenge and evolve what community-driven programming can look like in the 2020s.

The seeds of Wake Up, Maine! were planted years earlier, in the seemingly unrelated projects that defined both Luigi and Warren’s independent creative identities. Luigi had been the creative engine behind a string of offbeat, heartfelt television experiments, most notably Friday PM, a weekly late-night variety program that debuted in 2021 on Portland Media Center’s Channel 5. Known for its blend of street interviews, satirical commentary, and sincere spotlighting of local voices, Friday PM laid the philosophical groundwork for the tone of Wake Up, Maine! Would eventually embody. Luigi’s work consistently blurred the line between parody and tribute, elevating community figures and quirks while poking affectionate fun at the media formats that shaped them.

By late 2024, both Luigi and Warren found themselves at an inflection point. Luigi’s run with Friday PM had matured into a stable institution within Portland’s local media landscape, but the itch to do something new, something with a broader comedic scope and sharper format, was growing. Warren, now established as a creative force in both television and digital strategy, was eager to helm a project that allowed him to build a visual identity from scratch, rather than operate within someone else’s structure.

Initial brainstorming sessions between the two began informally in winter 2024, with ideas exchanged during off-hours at the PMC studio or over lengthy text threads. The core concept—a fake morning show that, at first glance, looked exactly like the real thing—emerged early and stuck. It allowed Luigi to play in a new genre while still deploying his signature satirical voice, and it allowed Warren to design a brand from the ground up: from opening graphics to lighting schemes to the way a camera might linger just a beat too long during a faux-inspirational monologue.

By spring 2025, the duo had begun assembling segments, talent, and a test reel. While conversations with WPXT and Maine's CW would eventually lead to the show’s formal broadcast contract, Wake Up, Maine! was already creatively in motion. Its true origin was not a boardroom pitch or a network mandate but a convergence of two creatives—one known for his subversive writing and host presence, the other for his eye and technical mastery—finally aligning on a concept that showcased both of their strengths.

For Warren Edgar, Wake Up, Maine! is the first show in which he has been given full creative rein over its visual and comedic identity. For Luigi Scarcelli, it’s a natural evolution—his most ambitious effort to date in reshaping local television into something both lovingly familiar and defiantly original. The show stands as a creative response to the stale formulas of traditional morning TV, as well as a love letter to the communities that watch it, whether earnestly or ironically.