The SCI FI Channel is jumping into the reality game show arena with the producers of Fear Factor and former Crossing Jordan cast member Steve Valentine to bring fans a new brand of extreme TV in Estate of Panic, which airs Wednesday, November 12 at 10pm. With Valentine serving as host, contestants enter a mansion filled with money where they go room to room competing for hidden cash as the house dictates the challenges they face. The last one to make it through each room with the most money after confronting their fears takes home not only their money, but the cash from the other contestants, too.

We've already checked out the Estate of Panic premiere and the first room in the mansion is easily one of the craziest challenges we've ever seen. No joke, some of us here at The Deadbolt had to confront their fear just to watch it. Imagine a room hidden with cash and filling with water while... that's all we'll say.

Late last week we spoke to former Crossing Jordan actor turned show host, Steve Valentine, and former Amazing Race and Fear Factor producer turned Estate of Panic creator, Richard Hall, about what we can expect from the mansion, how the game works, why people do crazy things for money, and what Richard's dad Monty of Let's Make a Deal fame thinks of the new wave of game shows.

THE DEADBOLT: I read somewhere that you guys wanted to get back to having real contestants instead of aspiring actor types. How did you avoid those types of people?

RICHARD HALL: You know, we really were very intent on finding people from all the walks of life, even in southern California. We had like a soccer mom and a grandmother. And we had...

STEVE VALENTINE: You know, one lady that owned a winery.

HALL: Yeah, one lady with a winery. We had a kind of a lunch bucket category of guys. And we had younger guys who were just kind of looking for what they were going to do after college. I mean, we had a bouncer from a nightclub. We really did try very hard. We had executive people, managers...

VALENTINE: That one guy who was the ex-gang member.

HALL: Yeah, who is now a youth - works in youth programs.

VALENTINE: He was scary though.

HALL: It was a really good cross-section. And I think 90% of the people in Los Angeles flirt with the entertainment industry. But for a lot of people, this was - of our cast members, this was as close as they ever got to that sort of glamour. But they really weren't taken in with that because they were so intent on wondering what was around the corner for them. So in terms of them being real, they were very real because they had no idea what to expect. And they were always kind of on edge. And I think that's what made their... you'll see it in the show.

THE DEADBOLT: How much money is on the line?

HALL: Good question. The house has a fortune inside. It's really up to how well these contestants play the game as to how much of that fortune they're going to find. And ultimately, the winnings are accumulative, shared in a pot for the winner.

THE DEADBOLT: If this lasts a couple seasons, do you foresee some contestants maybe forming alliances and splitting the money at the end?

HALL: There are rules about conniving. But if during the course of an event - it's not like after the show is over, you know, one person can share their money with another. That's usually against any kind of rules. But if during filming, if there's a situation where they need to work together to get at a large amount of money, they can work together and agree to split whatever they find when it's happening in real time.

VALENTINE: We had that - we had one moment when somebody actually, when there was two halves of a specific object that were in a room, that was part of what they had to find and two different people found - like one person found one half. The other person found the other half. Now together if they bring back that object, both pieces - if somebody brings back both pieces together, it adds a lot of money to the pot.

So by working together they increase the pot at that one particular point. And this guy did actually give up his half of the money. He felt confident that he found enough cash that he would be able to go through the next room.

HALL: Right. There were some working together, but you can only play that game up to a point. Otherwise you're working against yourself.

THE DEADBOLT: Steve, after you do your hosting bit and they go into the rooms to do the challenges, what are you doing? Do you watch them on monitors?

VALENTINE: I watch everything that happens because I comment on it afterwards. So I'm in the room with the director and the producers, and I'm watching them. We have like a million cameras on everything and everywhere. And so I'm in there watching and making notes, and seeing - and I'm cheering people on - like when you watch the show, there'll be people who will be cheering on and you'll be saying, 'Oh, my god. I can't believe they actually did that.'

That's me in the booth. I was very vocal. I was probably annoying the director at the time. But yeah, I watch every moment of it. I'm super involved.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Steve Valentine on whether people deserve to be scared about winning money:

"Well, you know, I think part of this show is it's fun. It is extreme and it's fun, and people like to be challenged. But I also think that part of this show is just to see how far people will go in order to win money. And on our show, they go pretty far. I mean, I know, there's nothing that they won't do in order to get the cash. And the thing of the show is it's right out there. I mean a lot of it's hidden in the room but a lot of the cash is just sitting there. And it's tricky because it looks easy. And the great thing about - also about doing the first season is your contestants have no frame of reference so they have absolutely no idea what's going to happen when they walk into each of these rooms."

Valentine on what it says about people who are willing to do extreme things for money:

"I think it says that people are up for a challenge. I think it says that people are willing to do more and more extreme things - not just to win cash, but for experience. I mean this was an experience for the contestants. It was a chance for them to go through stuff they probably will never go through again in the rest of their lives, and stories for their grandchildren.

"I think it's - like Rich said, it's more than just the money because it's this chance to prove yourself. And I would talk to the contestants sometimes off camera and we would talk about the game show and we would talk about the competitions and everything. And for them, the main reason most of them said they were doing it was for the challenge."

Richard Hall on what his father, Monty Hall, thinks of new reality game shows:

"He's a big fan of all of the innovations in TV and, of course, he sees the seeds of what he's done and other people from his generation in TV to what's happening today. And he loves it and he's very dialed into it."