The 1% Club contestants face tricky PIN puzzle as £96,000 jackpot hangs in the balance

Three contestants reached the final stage of The 1% Club with the chance to join the show’s exclusive 1% Club and claim a share of a £96,000 jackpot.

But their final challenge was far from a straightforward number puzzle.

Hosted by Lee Mack, 56, the ITV game show puts 100 contestants through a series of logic, reasoning and common-sense challenges rather than testing traditional general knowledge.

Players have just 30 seconds to work out each puzzle, with the questions becoming progressively more difficult as the game continues.

Can you crack the four-digit PIN?

For the final challenge, contestants were shown a diagram containing a sequence of letters arranged in what initially appeared to be a random pattern.

Lee introduced the puzzle with a simple scenario:

“I keep forgetting my four-digit PIN number. I know each digit is higher than the previous digit but I need this diagram to remember it.”

He then asked:

“What is my four-digit PIN number?”

The contestants had to work out how the letter diagram could be used to identify the four digits, while also following the clue that each digit had to be higher than the one before it.

The correct PIN was 1489.

Only one contestant got it right

Of the three finalists, only Dominic managed to give the correct answer.

His success meant he was the only contestant to correctly solve the 1% question and join the show’s famous 1% Club.

One of the other contestants came remarkably close, missing out by just one digit. Had they also found the correct answer, the £96,000 jackpot would have been split between the successful players.

Those who failed to solve the puzzle therefore missed the opportunity to claim a share of the substantial prize fund.

Viewers divided over the difficulty

The final puzzle also prompted discussion among viewers, with some arguing that it appeared easier than several of the questions that had come earlier in the episode.

One viewer described the 1% question as “just a word search puzzle” and said they had found some of the earlier challenges much harder.

Another commented that some of the later questions were once again easier than puzzles contestants had faced earlier in the game.

A third viewer similarly described the 1% question as “sooo easy” compared with the previous challenge, which they felt was much more difficult to solve within the 30-second time limit without having an exceptional memory.

The reactions highlighted the very different ways contestants can experience the show’s puzzles. A question that appears straightforward to one viewer can still prove difficult when players have only seconds to identify the pattern.

Another challenge had already tested the contestants

The PIN puzzle came after a series of increasingly demanding questions designed to test the players’ ability to spot patterns and think under pressure.

With 100 players initially entering the studio, each stage reduces the field as contestants either solve the puzzles correctly, use their passes or are eliminated.

The final three were therefore left with one last opportunity to prove they could solve a question that, according to the show’s format, only 1% of the public would be expected to answer correctly.

In this case, it was Dominic who found the 1489 sequence and secured his place in the 1% Club.

The 1% Club continues on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.