14 Players Eliminated by a Question That Looked Almost Too Easy on The 1% Club

A seemingly straightforward counting question was enough to send 14 contestants out of The 1% Club in the opening round, leaving viewers with a deceptively simple challenge of their own: could they have worked out the answer within 30 seconds?

The ITV1 quiz show, hosted by Lee Mack, brought together 100 contestants hoping to survive enough logic and reasoning questions to reach the coveted 1% question and a chance to share the jackpot.

But for 14 players, the journey ended almost immediately.

Could you work out who says 20?

The question appeared to be nothing more than a basic counting exercise.

Lee asked:

Oliver, Emily and Rosie count from one to twenty, taking it in turns to say the numbers. Oliver says 1, Emily says 2, Rosie says 3 and so on. Who will say number 20?

Contestants had just 30 seconds to submit their answers.

Despite the apparently simple setup, 14 players failed to get it right and were eliminated when the timer ran out.

The answer was Emily.

The trick is to follow the three-person sequence rather than simply thinking about the number itself.

Oliver says 1, Emily says 2 and Rosie says 3. The same pattern continues, meaning Rosie finishes the first complete cycle at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18.

That leaves Oliver to say 19, followed by Emily saying 20.

So, despite being described as a 90% question, it was enough to catch out a sizeable group of contestants.

Jason admits he simply panicked

Among those eliminated was a contestant named Jason.

Lee asked him what had gone wrong, and Jason admitted: “I lost all logic and just pressed a button and went for it.”

The exchange then took an amusing turn when Lee discovered that Jason worked in a chemical factory.

Lee joked that it sounded like a dangerous occupation for someone who had already been eliminated in the first round.

He then acted out a mock version of Jason’s reaction, joking that the whole thing had blown up and that he had simply panicked and pressed the button.

Jason and the studio audience laughed before Lee moved on.

A five-letter word that left players stumped

Another episode of The 1% Club featured a very different kind of challenge, this time involving a word puzzle.

Lee presented contestants with a five-letter word that changes as letters are removed:

“There is a five letter word where if you remove the first letter a bit remains. If you remove the second letter that bit is still there and if you take away the third letter it continues to be in place. What is the word?”

The answer was Habit.

The solution becomes clearer when the letters are removed in sequence.

Remove the first letter from habit and you are left with a bit.

Remove the next letter and bit remains.

Remove another letter and the result is it.

The puzzle proved difficult for contestants, despite the answer becoming much more obvious once the sequence was explained.

Another question eliminated 23 contestants

The show has also produced some brutal eliminations further into the competition.

In a recent episode, 23 contestants were knocked out by a question involving numbers and vowels.

Lee asked:

“Including the word ‘and’, what is the only number out of the numbers below that uses every vowel exactly once when spelt out?”

The three options were:

• 107
• 206
• 305

As usual, contestants had only a short amount of time to work through the problem. Lee added his own joke before the countdown began:

“Take as long as you need… as long as the time you need is 30 seconds.”

The correct answer was 206, meaning a large group of players lost their chance to progress.

The questions can be simple, but the pressure changes everything

That is part of what makes The 1% Club different from a traditional general-knowledge quiz.

Contestants are not necessarily being asked to recall obscure facts. Instead, the questions often depend on spotting a pattern, approaching a familiar idea differently or resisting the instinct to overthink a problem.

The counting question involving Oliver, Emily and Rosie is a good example. The arithmetic itself is straightforward, but the 30-second time limit and the pressure of competing against dozens of other players can make even a basic sequence surprisingly difficult.

The Habit puzzle works in much the same way. Once the answer is revealed, the progression from habit to a bit, then bit, and finally it is easy to follow. Getting there under pressure is another matter.

For the contestants who survived, each correct answer meant moving one step closer to the final 1% challenge and a potential share of the jackpot. For the 14 players caught by the opening counting question, however, the game was over before they had much opportunity to recover.

The 1% Club is available to watch on Saturdays on ITV1 and ITVX.