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

A £99,000 jackpot was won on The 1% Club, but the final question has left viewers arguing over whether the puzzle was cleverly designed or simply too sneaky to solve in time.

The ITV quiz show, hosted by comedian Lee Mack, is known for testing logic, observation and common sense rather than traditional general knowledge. The format starts with 100 contestants and gradually eliminates players through increasingly difficult questions, with the ultimate challenge aimed at the one per cent of people who can solve it.

That reputation for fiendish questions was on full display in the episode broadcast on 8 February, when five contestants made it through to the final round.

Five contestants faced a £99,000 decision

With five players still in contention, Mack offered them a choice.

They could divide £10,000 between themselves, or take the much bigger risk of continuing with the final question, knowing that only one contestant could eventually take home the £99,000 jackpot.

The group chose to gamble.

Their decision paid off for a contestant named Matthew, who managed to crack the final puzzle and claim the £99,000 prize.

The victory, however, quickly became a talking point among viewers at home, with many admitting they would have struggled to reach the answer within the time allowed.

The final question that caused the debate

Mack asked:

“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 presented to the contestants was:

ANIMAL TOSHUNINSTAMPEDE

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

THPELEAN

Rearranging those letters produces:

ELEPHANT

That was the answer Matthew needed, and it was enough to secure the £99,000 jackpot.

The puzzle divided viewers because, while the solution appears straightforward once it is revealed, several people felt that spotting the correct arrangement under the show’s time pressure was another matter entirely.

The show’s questions are deliberately designed around logic and reasoning, with contestants given only a limited amount of time to lock in their answers. ITV describes the format as one that tests how people think rather than how much general knowledge they have.

Viewers accused the show of being “sneaky”

Social media quickly filled with reactions from people who had attempted to solve the puzzle themselves.

One viewer particularly focused on the letter P, suggesting that its placement 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.”

Another admitted that even though they were normally comfortable solving anagrams, they could not find the answer within the 30-second window:

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

Others were equally baffled.

One viewer simply wrote:

“Wasn’t seeing that, congratulations to the winner!”

Another documented their increasingly desperate attempts to make sense of the letters before eventually discovering the answer was Elephant, joking that they were not part of the 1% Club.

For those viewers, the question felt much harder than it looked once the answer had been revealed.

Some fans thought the answer was hiding in plain sight

Not everyone was convinced the question was unfair.

Some viewers managed to solve the anagram and were more than happy to celebrate their success.

One wrote:

“Yes I did it again 2 weeks running. I’ve just finished playing The 1% Club. #the1percentclub.”

Another believed the jumbled letters themselves provided a useful clue:

“Elephant the clue was there.”

A third viewer, despite admitting they were usually poor at anagrams, felt the question was relatively manageable compared with some of the show’s previous 1% challenges:

“#The1PercentClub I’m terrible at anagrams but that is still easier than previous 1% questions.”

That split reaction is very much in keeping with the appeal of The 1% Club. The format is built around questions that can look deceptively simple while requiring contestants to spot a particular pattern or connection under pressure. ITV says the show does not depend on memorising obscure facts, instead putting the emphasis on logic and common sense.

For Matthew, at least, the final puzzle proved solvable when it mattered most.

For everyone watching at home, the debate was whether they would have spotted THPELEAN becoming ELEPHANT before the clock ran out.

And that may have been the most fitting way for a 1% Club question to end: with one contestant celebrating a £99,000 win while everyone else argued over whether they could have done the same.