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Estate of Panic

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5400687
Source-derived summary

Estate of Panic is an American reality competition show in which seven strangers compete to find cash in a large estate. The show is hosted by Steve Valentine, and produced by Endemol USA.

The first and only season aired on the Sci-Fi Channel from November 12 to December 17, 2008, around the same time as another reality competition series, Chase. The series has also aired on USA Network and Chiller.

Premise

Seven strangers from across the United States arrive at a large, mysterious mansion. The mansion's eccentric owner (Steve Valentine) spends his free time stashing his assets throughout the mansion, and he is assisted by his silent butler, the eighty-year-old maniacal freak, Rupert. Once the players arrive at the estate, The owner challenges them to find the cash he has hidden in a series of rooms. The task is made difficult, however, as the contestants must come face to face with their greatest phobias while in the house. In each room, the last person to leave and the person who collects the least money are both eliminated. After three rooms are explored and six players have been eliminated, the final contestant earns the opportunity to win (and add to) everything collected by all players by completing a final challenge in the estate's Vault.

Gameplay

Main game

The game is similar in concept to several other shows such as Fear Factor (also produced by Endemol), the Nickelodeon game show Finders Keepers, the French game show Fort Boyard, the British game show The Crystal Maze, and the GSN game show How Much Is Enough?

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Estate of Panic” as television series. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Estate, Panic and television can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as television series. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5400687. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Estate of Panic”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Estate of Panic primary sources, Estate of Panic archive and Estate research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Estate of Panic”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Estate of Panic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.