During this past weekend’s Sci Fi channel digital press event, Sci Fi Executive VP of Original Programming Mark Stern stopped by to talk to us a bit about the new reality competition series, Estate of Panic. Not only do I have some information about the show but we also have some pictures to share with you!
Stern showed up at the event straight off the plane from Argentina, where the new series is being filmed to tell us a bit about it and give us a slide-show containing photos taken during production. We weren’t given the actual photos to post so I had to resort to photographing the slideshow boot-leg style, which explains their less-than-high-res quality.
In case you haven’t heard about Estate of Panic, the series has contestants competing against one another to win cash by entering various rooms and attempting to find and gather up as much cash as possible, while also trying not to be deterred by whatever dangers the room presents. For example, one room fills with water (we have a photo of that one in the gallery below) and there’s another room that shrinks (that’s the photo with the table, chairs and grandfather clock). Some rooms have creepy-crawly things lurking about that could also present a problem for the contestants.
The object is to get as much cash as possible and then get out of the room. In each round, the last person out of the room and the person who managed to grab the least amount of money are eliminated. The last person at the end of the game has the chance to go for big money (and pocket all of the cash collected by the eliminated contestants) by entering the Vault Room and attempting to find a key or some other way to free themselves from the chain that’s keeping them from escaping the Vault (and winning the money).
One of the things Stern mentioned was that they’re looking for “real” people to participate in this show. If you’re familiar with reality TV these days, you may be aware that quite a few reality TV contestants are aspiring actors looking to get their foot in the door in the industry. I find it refreshing to hear that not only are producers aware of this but that in the case of Estate of Panic, they’re actually trying to avoid those types and keep as much reality in their reality-TV show as possible, with regards to the contestants.
Steve Valentine (Crossing Jordan) is set to host Estate of Panic, which will premiere on Wednesday, November 12th at 10:00 PM on Sci Fi.
