The 1% Club viewers rage over ‘worst question ever’ as bizarre mug puzzle wipes out 20 contestants

A deceptively simple-looking puzzle caused chaos on The 1% Club when 20 contestants were eliminated and another 18 were forced to use their passes — leaving viewers at home branding it one of the most frustrating questions the ITV show had ever produced.

The controversial moment came during Series 3, Episode 7, broadcast on April 13, 2024. As usual, 100 contestants began the competition, attempting to survive a sequence of puzzles based on logic and common sense rather than traditional general knowledge.

But it wasn’t the dreaded 1% question that caused the biggest uproar. Instead, a 30% question involving a row of mugs proved surprisingly destructive.

The mug puzzle that caused chaos

Contestants were shown four mugs on a top shelf bearing the words HAT, LOG, OLD and ROW.

Below them were another four options: ALF, SUE, MEG and BEN.

The challenge was straightforward on paper: identify whose mug belonged alongside the four already on the top shelf.

Yet spotting the hidden connection proved anything but straightforward.

When the answers were locked in, an extraordinary 20 contestants had got it wrong, while another 18 had used their passes rather than risk elimination.

Even Lee Mack appeared surprised by the scale of the damage.

“Wow,” he reacted before revealing that 20 people had been lost on a single question.

So what was the hidden trick?

The answer was ALF — but solving it required contestants to stop concentrating solely on the words printed on the mugs.

The crucial clue was the mug handle.

Its shape represented the letter C. Putting that C before each word on the top shelf transformed them into:

HAT → CHAT
LOG → CLOG
OLD → COLD
ROW → CROW

Following the same rule, ALF became CALF, making it the only option that fitted the pattern.

It was the kind of visual trick that seemed much more obvious once Lee explained it — but under the pressure of the clock, dozens of contestants failed to see it.

Viewers were furious with the question

The puzzle proved just as divisive among those playing along at home.

Some viewers admitted it had completely ended their run, while others were frustrated because they managed to solve questions later in the episode that were statistically supposed to be considerably harder.

One viewer described it as the “worst question the show has ever had,” while another simply admitted: “I don’t get it.”

Others called it “daft” and “annoying,” with one fan particularly frustrated after missing the mug puzzle but immediately solving the later 25% question.

The reaction highlighted one of the quirks that has made The 1% Club such an unpredictable game show: a question labelled relatively accessible can sometimes prove far more troublesome for an individual player than those appearing much later.

Some viewers thought there was another possible pattern

Not everyone was convinced by the official solution.

One viewer suggested SUE could also appear to fit because the words on the existing top shelf were arranged alphabetically, creating an alternative way of interpreting the puzzle.

But the intended logic depended on recognising the handle as the letter C — making ALF the official answer.

For many viewers, that explanation did little to ease the frustration. Some said the mug puzzle had ruined what otherwise would have been their best performance on the show.

The episode itself was part of the third series of the Lee Mack-hosted competition, in which 100 contestants begin with the aim of surviving all the way to a final question that only 1% of people are expected to answer correctly — with as much as £100,000 at stake.

On this occasion, however, contestants didn’t need to reach anything close to the 1% round to encounter serious trouble.

All it took was a row of mugs, one cleverly disguised letter — and a 30% question that sent 20 players straight out of the game.