The 1% Club: Seventeen players eliminated by deceptively tricky planets question

Seventeen contestants were left scratching their heads on The 1% Club after a deceptively simple question about the planets proved far tougher than it looked.

The challenge appeared to be a straightforward test of logic, but the ticking clock made it considerably more difficult. By the time the answer was revealed, 17 players had failed to work out which planets would remain in the same positions.

The question featured on the ITV game show hosted by Lee Mack during the episode broadcast on Saturday, January 24, 2026. The 1% Club is built around logic, common sense and brainpower rather than traditional general knowledge, with 100 contestants beginning each episode and the questions becoming progressively harder.

Could you put the planets in the right order?

Lee presented the contestants with an image showing the planets arranged according to their distance from the sun.

They were then asked to imagine rearranging those planets alphabetically, starting from the sun, and determine how many would still occupy exactly the same position.

It sounded manageable until the countdown began.

With only a limited amount of time to think through the eight planets and their new alphabetical positions, contestants submitted their answers under pressure.

Seventeen of them got it wrong.

The correct answer was two, with Saturn and Uranus remaining in the same positions after the planets were reordered alphabetically.

Lee then added a cheeky joke about Uranus staying in the same place, prompting laughter from the studio audience.

The question also proved troublesome for viewers watching at home. Some took to X to admit that they had run out of time while attempting to rearrange the planets themselves.

One viewer said they had been eliminated by the clock rather than the question itself, while another admitted they had come very close but still failed to reach the correct answer.

The £97,000 question proved even tougher

The planets puzzle was not the only major stumbling block in the episode.

Later in the show, five contestants made it through to the final 1% question, with a £97,000 prize at stake.

This time, the players were faced with a balloon puzzle involving a man named Vince.

His best man had already bought balloons to spell STAG LOCATION, while Vince’s other friends wanted him to add balloons so that they could display CONGRATULATIONS.

The contestants had to work out which three additional letters were needed.

It was another deceptively difficult word puzzle, and the pressure of the final round made it even harder.

One contestant, Simon, suggested U, R and L, while acknowledging that he had been rushing and might have made a mistake.

Nicholas went with U, R and O. He then realised his answer was wrong, saying that he could see the correct solution after committing to his guess.

Neither answer was correct.

In the end, none of the remaining contestants managed to solve the puzzle. Lee revealed that the three missing letters were R, U and N, meaning the £97,000 prize went unclaimed.

The episode was another reminder of what makes The 1% Club so challenging. The show begins with 100 contestants, but success depends on reasoning and common sense rather than simply knowing obscure facts. ITV says the format is designed so contestants do not need to revise general knowledge to compete, with the ultimate challenge being a question that only 1% of the country would be expected to answer correctly.

And for the 17 contestants caught out by the planets puzzle, knowing the names of the planets was never the problem. The real challenge was reorganising them quickly enough while the clock was running.