The 1% Club: 12 contestants eliminated by a question viewers called “suspiciously easy”

Twelve contestants were sent home by a calculator puzzle on The 1% Club after struggling with a question that viewers watching at home thought should have been much easier.

The moment came during the ITV quiz show on Saturday, 10 May, with host Lee Mack putting contestants through a series of logic and reasoning challenges rather than traditional general-knowledge questions.

The show has a habit of making seemingly straightforward questions surprisingly difficult. But this particular puzzle left viewers wondering how so many contestants had managed to get it wrong.

Could you solve the calculator question?

The challenge appeared during the 30% question and featured a picture of a calculator.

Contestants were asked:

“What’s the largest four-digit number you can type using just the number keys on the bottom two rows of this calculator without using the same number key twice?”

It sounds simple enough. But with the pressure of competing on television, 12 contestants failed to find the correct answer and were eliminated.

The correct answer was 3210.

The four digits are the only number keys available across the bottom two rows of the calculator shown in the question, meaning they can be arranged to create the largest possible four-digit number without repeating a key.

Once Lee Mack revealed the answer, the solution suddenly seemed much more obvious.

Viewers couldn’t believe 12 people got it wrong

The mass elimination quickly caught the attention of viewers at home, with several taking to social media to question how such a seemingly simple puzzle had caused so many contestants to crash out.

One viewer wrote: “How did 12 go out???? It’s 3210.”

Another described the calculator puzzle as “suspiciously easy,” while a third joked that they were amazed so many contestants had struggled with it.

Of course, the pressure of a studio quiz show can make even familiar problems much harder than they appear from the comfort of the sofa.

And the contestants weren’t the only ones caught out that night.

Another 12 contestants fell at the 90% question

Later in the episode, another 12 contestants were eliminated by the 90% question.

This time, the puzzle involved identifying a fruit from a visual arrangement of letters. The answer was mango, using the letters M-A-N-G-O while disregarding F, P and H.

So while the calculator puzzle may have looked painfully straightforward to viewers, the episode proved once again that The 1% Club can turn simple-looking challenges into unexpected stumbling blocks.

The hardest 1% Club questions

For anyone who managed to solve both puzzles, the show has featured plenty of more demanding challenges over the years.

Among them are questions asking:

• What is the first number whose letters appear in alphabetical order?
• If January equals 717, March equals 5315 and June equals 4624, what does August equal?
• Lee notices his milometer reads 16961 forwards and backwards. What is the next mileage that does the same?
• What do the words “Into,” “Therefore,” “Evaluate” and “Benign” have in common?
• A bat and a ball cost £1.10 together, with the bat costing £1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

The show’s Season 4 question archive also confirms the 3210 calculator puzzle as the 30% question from the 10 May episode, while the 90% fruit puzzle had mango as its answer.