Brett had made it further than everyone else and put his guaranteed winnings on the line – only for one ordinary four-letter word to stand between him and a huge jackpot

Making it all the way to the final question on The 1% Club is impressive enough.

Doing it as the last contestant standing, with nobody else left to help share the pressure, is another matter entirely.

But that’s exactly where contestant Brett found himself when his run on the ITV quiz came down to one final decision.

He had already outlasted the rest of the studio and reached the point where he could walk away with a guaranteed £10,000.

Or he could gamble it for a shot at the £96,000 jackpot.

Brett decided to go for it.

All that stood between him and the huge prize was one final 1% question and 30 seconds to solve it.

And when the puzzle appeared, it didn’t involve some terrifying equation or obscure piece of general knowledge.

He just needed to find one four-letter word.

Sounds manageable, right?

Well, have a go before judging.

The £96,000 question

Brett was shown three versions of essentially the same sentence, each containing a blank in a different position:

____ I am certain that he had read the man’s notes.

I am certain that ____ he had read the man’s notes.

I am certain that he had read the man’s ____ notes.

The question asked:

“What four-letter word fits into the gaps in the sentences below so that they all make sense?”

There is only one answer required.

The exact same four-letter word has to work in all three gaps.

And Brett had just 30 seconds to find it.

This is probably the point where watching The 1% Club from the sofa becomes considerably more comfortable than actually appearing on it.

Because there’s £96,000 riding on the answer.

Start the clock.

@1percentclubitv £96,000 or nothing 😱 Can you solve the 1% question? Let us know the answer in the comments👇 #The1PercentClub final episode will be back tomorrow at 9 pm on #ITV 1 and @WeAreSTV or catch up on @ITVX ! #quiz #Saturdaynight #LeeMack #TV #funny #meme #Saturday #quiztok #win ♬ original sound – The 1% Club

Brett couldn’t see it

As the seconds disappeared, Brett struggled to find a word that satisfied all three sentences.

Eventually, he settled on an answer:

LAST.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the word the show was looking for.

The correct answer was:

ONLY.

Put it into the first sentence:

“Only I am certain that he had read the man’s notes.”

Here, the word tells us that I am the only person who is certain.

Move it into the second:

“I am certain that only he had read the man’s notes.”

Now he is the only person who read the notes.

And finally:

“I am certain that he had read the man’s only notes.”

This time, we’re being told they were the only notes the man had.

Same four-letter word. Same collection of words. Three different meanings simply because only moves position.

Once Lee Mack revealed the solution, the realisation was met with audible shock in the studio.

It was a particularly painful way for Brett’s run to end.

He’d made it further than every other contestant, had £10,000 guaranteed and decided to put it on the line for a chance at £96,000.

One four-letter word ultimately stopped him.

Brett didn’t leave completely empty-handed, however, as he still had £1,000 secured.

Mack praised him for making it further than everybody else in the room, but there was no disguising just how brutal the final question had been.

Viewers weren’t convinced it was a fair 1% puzzle either

And Brett wasn’t the only person who struggled with it.

Some viewers discussing the episode afterwards questioned whether the puzzle really was something one person in 100 could reasonably solve within just 30 seconds.

One particular sticking point was the final sentence.

While “the man’s only notes” works grammatically, some viewers felt it was an unusual enough construction to make an already difficult puzzle even harder to crack under pressure.

Others found themselves trying words such as “what”, “when” and “then” before the clock would have run out.

That’s arguably what makes the question so effective as a sofa challenge.

There is no complicated knowledge involved.

The answer isn’t an obscure word.

In fact, ONLY is about as ordinary as four-letter words get.

But with £96,000 at stake and 30 seconds disappearing in front of you, finding it is another matter entirely.