The 1% Club fans divided over ‘sneaky’ final question after contestant wins £99,000

A £99,000 jackpot was won on The 1% Club after contestant Matthew successfully cracked a final question that left many viewers completely stumped.

The ITV quiz show, hosted by comedian Lee Mack, has built a reputation for questions that can leave contestants and viewers scratching their heads. The latest episode was no exception, with the final challenge sparking a lively debate on social media.

Five contestants made it to the final

The controversy came during the episode broadcast on 8 February, when five contestants reached the last round.

At that stage, Lee Mack offered them a choice. They could split £10,000 between them or continue playing for the chance to win the much larger £99,000 jackpot, with only one contestant ultimately taking the money.

The group chose to keep going, putting their £10,000 share at risk in the hope of taking home the £99,000 prize.

That decision paid off for Matthew, who managed to solve the final question correctly.

The question that divided viewers

The challenge asked contestants:

“If you remove all the underlined letters from the sentence below, what word can be spelt if you rearrange all of the remaining letters.”

The sentence they were given was:

ANIMAL TOSHUNINSTAMPEDE

Once the underlined letters were removed, the remaining letters were:

Thpelean

Rearranging those letters produces the answer: Elephant.

While Matthew managed to spot the answer, many viewers watching at home felt the question was particularly difficult to solve within the 30-second time limit.

Some viewers even accused the show’s writers of being deliberately “sneaky”, with one person singling out the letter P and suggesting that it was easy to overlook.

“They were sneaky with the letter P, I’m sure a lot of people missed it, crafty behaviour from the writers of the show #The1PercentClub,” they posted.

Another viewer admitted that, despite usually being good at anagrams, they could not solve it in time.

“Normally good at anagrams but couldn’t get that in 30 seconds.”

Others had similar reactions, with one simply writing: “Wasn’t seeing that, congratulations to the winner!”

Another viewer documented their increasingly desperate attempts to find the answer before eventually realising it was Elephant, joking that they were not part of the “1% club”.

Some viewers thought the answer was easier to spot

Not everyone was convinced the question was unfair, however.

Several viewers said they had managed to work out the answer and felt the challenge was more straightforward than some of the show’s previous 1% questions.

One person proudly claimed they had solved it for the second week in a row after playing along at home.

Another pointed out that the scrambled letters themselves effectively contained a clue to the answer, writing: “Elephant the clue was there.”

A third viewer admitted to being “terrible at anagrams” but still considered the question easier than some of the earlier 1% challenges.

Matthew’s successful answer ultimately secured him the £99,000 jackpot, while viewers were left debating whether the final puzzle was a clever test of observation or simply too difficult to crack in the time available.