A roomful of danger & terror

MANILA, Philippines - What would you do if you could grab money from a room, but it starts to collapse or flood? What if the people around you started bailing out, would you follow suit or persevere on for more money, and risk getting shut out?

Faced with these challenges and dilemmas, contestants in the latest reality competition, must refrain from panic as there is simply no room for fear and error on AXN Beyond’s Estate of Panic! Airing Wednesday nights at 11, Estate of Panic offers cold hard cash to one of seven contestants who comes out tops in a series of nail-biting and intense physical and psychological challenges within the grounds of a mysterious and large mansion each week.

Hosted by the eccentric Steve Valentine (Crossing Jordan) and his freaky 80-year-old butler Rupert, contestants have to grab as much money as they can find hidden in three rooms. Among the hazards they face are rooms that rapidly flood with water, shrink with collapsing walls or has a floor that sinks like quicksand; spaces filled with maggots, snakes and tarantulas; as well as underground mazes full of dead ends, and a garden with electric fences.

With success being the thin line between greed and caution, contestants thread that line very carefully as the last contestant to leave each room and the contestant with the least amount of cash retrieved from each room are both eliminated. With six out of seven contestants out of the running after the third room, the remaining challenger earns the chance to win all the cash picked up by the entire group, and more, in the vault.

Restrained by a chain to the leg, a harness suspended from the ceiling, or a straitjacket, the contestant faces 200 safe deposit boxes in the vault. Some boxes contain money while others are booby-trapped, and a few have tools that can be used to free the restraint. The contestant has to get free and escape the vault before time runs out to get all the money; and if that cannot be done, the last resort will be to press a panic button in the vault or concede that he or she is panicking, and still keep half of the money.

Directed by J. Rupert Thompson of global hit reality shows including Fear Factor, WipeOut and American Gladiators, Estate of Panic is a breathless concoction of Fear Factor’s danger, risk and terror, with the excitement and frustration of the search for hidden treasures akin to the classic Finders Keepers format. Shot on location within an actual estate in Argentina, all challengers are strangers in this free-for-all contest hosted by Valentine, who earned praise from entertainment trade weekly Variety for the “macabre charm” that he “oozes” in the panic-inducing show.

Watch as contestants grab as much money as possible while curbing fear of their increasingly hostile surroundings, and execute exit strategies based on split-second decisions of competitors around them. Definitely not for the faint-hearted, the shocking and nerve-wrecking challenges push contestants to the edge of their physical and psychological limits, and viewers to the edge of their seats in Estate of Panic.