The 1% Club’s simple letter puzzle sends 14 contestants crashing out

A seemingly straightforward question about the alphabet proved surprisingly costly on The 1% Club, with 14 contestants eliminated after failing to identify the second capital letter that looks the same in a mirror.

Hosted by Lee Mack, the ITV quiz show is known for testing logic, reasoning and common sense rather than traditional general knowledge. Each question is designed around the percentage of people expected to solve it, with contestants given just 30 seconds to find the answer.

Every player eliminated adds £1,000 to the prize pot, gradually increasing the amount available to those who make it through to the final 1% question.

The mirror-letter question

The puzzle appeared relatively early in the game as the 50% question.

Lee first gave contestants the clue:

“A is the first capital letter in the alphabet that looks the same in the mirror.”

He then asked:

“What is the second?”

Players had only 30 seconds to work it out.

Despite the question appearing to require little more than a careful look at the alphabet, 14 contestants failed to give the correct answer.

The letter they were looking for was H.

A capital H has vertical symmetry, meaning its appearance remains the same when reflected in a mirror.

With 14 players eliminated, another £14,000 was added to the prize fund, taking the jackpot to £49,000.

The result left 55 contestants remaining in the game.

The show’s format was also set for a major change

The tricky letter puzzle came as The 1% Club was preparing for a significant change to its usual format.

Rather than airing in its traditional Saturday-night slot, ITV planned a special version of the programme that would run five consecutive weeknights.

The new format would also introduce a rollover feature, allowing unclaimed prize money to carry over from one episode to the next.

That meant the jackpot could potentially build throughout the week, with as much as £500,000 available on the final show.

The eventual 1% Club Rollover format also introduced another change: contestants who reached the 1% question could return for the following episode, giving them another opportunity to compete for the growing prize pot. ITV later confirmed that the five-day event aired as a supersized primetime run.

For the contestants facing the alphabet puzzle, however, there was no such second chance. Fourteen players were simply caught out by a question that became considerably easier once the mirror symmetry of H was spotted.