The 1% Club’s “Easy” Vegetable Question Knocked Out Three Players In 30 Seconds

A question that 80% of the public were expected to answer correctly still managed to catch three contestants out on The 1% Club.

The challenge appeared in an early episode of Lee Mack’s ITV game show, where contestants are tested on logic, reasoning and common sense rather than traditional general knowledge.

The format begins with 100 players, who face a series of increasingly difficult questions as the game progresses. Their goal is to survive until the final stage, where the questions are designed to be answerable by just one per cent of the public.

Can You Complete The Word?

During the episode, Lee introduced the next challenge by telling contestants that 80 per cent of the public could answer it.

The question was:

“What vegetable can you insert here to make a fruit?”

On screen was a five-letter word with the final two letters already visible: CH.

The contestants had 30 seconds to work out which vegetable could be inserted into the word to turn it into the name of a fruit.

Lee, as usual, added his own comic warning before the clock began:

“Please do not try to insert a vegetable at home, our contestants are trained professionals.”

Despite the question being rated at 80%, it proved enough to put some contestants under pressure.

Three Players Eliminated

When the 30 seconds were over, Lee revealed that three players had been knocked out.

The missing vegetable was pea, which could be inserted to create the word peach.

Lee then spoke to Chloe, one of the contestants who had been eliminated, and asked what she had put down.

“Veg, I Just couldn’t think of anything,” she replied.

Her answer left Lee visibly surprised.

“Veg? That would have been a hell of a clue,” he joked.

The exchange became even more ironic when Chloe revealed that she was an English student.

“English! The irony,” Lee responded, laughing.

Some Of The Show’s Toughest Questions

The vegetable puzzle is just one of many challenges that have tested The 1% Club contestants.

Previous questions have asked players to compare butterflies and identify those that were exactly the same on both sides, determine which groups of symbols remained in the same order when read from either direction, and calculate how many different ways four digits could be displayed on one hand.

Other puzzles have involved cracking a diary written in secret code, counting visible eyes hidden among letters, symbols and emojis, and navigating a numbered grid from 1 to 49 using word-based clues.

Even questions considered relatively easy have caused problems. Contestants have previously struggled with a puzzle involving a picture of a cat, while a question about the days of the week also left viewers searching for the trick.

The show’s appeal comes from precisely this kind of challenge: what looks obvious at first can become surprisingly difficult once the clock starts ticking.

The 1% Club airs on Saturday nights on ITV and is available to stream on ITVX.