The 1% Club contestants stumped by tricky four-letter word puzzle

A seemingly simple four-letter word puzzle proved surprisingly difficult for contestants on The 1% Club, with six players eliminated by a question that relied on spotting a pattern rather than recalling general knowledge.

The ITV quiz show, hosted by Lee Mack since it launched in April 2022, challenges 100 contestants with questions based on logic, reasoning and common sense. Each question becomes progressively harder, moving from those expected to be answered by 90% of the population to the final challenge aimed at just 1%.

In a repeat episode from series two, the 20% question left six contestants out of the game.

Could you spot the missing word?

Contestants were given 30 seconds to answer:

Which four-letter word is missing from this list?

SPOT
OPTS
POTS
STOP
TOPS
????

The catch was that every answer had to be made using the same four letters: S, P, O and T.

At first glance, the puzzle looks straightforward. But with the clock running, finding the one remaining arrangement of the letters proved more difficult than several players expected.

The list already contained spot, opts, pots, stop and tops. The missing word was another valid four-letter combination of exactly the same letters.

After the tense 30-second countdown, Lee Mack revealed the answer.

It was POST.

The word was the remaining combination that could be formed from S, P, O and T, completing the sequence.

Only one contestant reached the 1% question

The word puzzle was not the only challenge of the episode. By the end, just one contestant, Brett, had made it through to the final 1% question.

Brett had already secured £1,000 and had the option of leaving the game with a further £10,000 rather than attempting the final challenge.

However, the chance to win the entire £96,000 jackpot persuaded him to continue.

The final question proved considerably tougher.

As the 30-second countdown began, Brett struggled to find the answer. He eventually gave last as his response.

“I didn’t know it. I put last. I just couldn’t see it,” he told Lee Mack.

Unfortunately for Brett, the answer the host was looking for was only.

Brett therefore missed out on the £96,000 jackpot, although he kept the £1,000 he had already secured.

The episode highlighted exactly what makes The 1% Club different from conventional quiz shows. Rather than relying on specialist knowledge, contestants are asked to identify patterns, interpret wording and think through problems under pressure.

And while the missing word in the 20% question was only four letters long, contestants still had just 30 seconds to see the pattern.

The answer, of course, was POST.