ITV’s The 1% Club viewers have been left fuming after a controversial question eliminated 12 contestants in the opening minutes of last weekend’s show – leaving host Lee Mack stunned.
The question, which was meant to be among the easiest with a 90 per cent success rate among the general public, sparked outrage on social media for its misleading wording.
Contestants were caught out by what appeared to be a straightforward geometry question, which actually tested vocabulary knowledge – something a lot of the players on the show and at home didn’t understand.
The puzzle which was read out by Mack led to immediate eliminations – which wouldn’t be the first time.
The question asked contestants: “Which of these is the largest? A Circle, B Triangle, C Rectangle, or D Square.” – with the words spelt out, not showing the actual shapes.
While many participants assumed they needed to compare the geometric shapes, the correct answer was “Rectangle” – simply because it contained the most letters.
The 90% question is meant to be the easiest
ITV
The tricky wordplay caught out a dozen contestants who were eliminated from the competition early on – and left them feeling disappointed and deflated they had been knocked out so early.
The question’s placement as a 90 per cent difficulty level challenge – meaning 90 per cent of the general public could answer it correctly – made the eliminations particularly surprising.
Viewers quickly took to social media platform X to express their frustration over the question’s wording.
“Isn’t that a bit of a stupidly worded question? The actual question is ‘Which word is the longest?’ not ‘Which shape is the largest?'” one viewer posted.
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Fans of the show were left furious at how badly worded the question was
ITV
Another viewer commented: “That was a brutal 90 per cent question to be fair! They could have worded that a little better and so many more people would have stayed in.
“Rectangle??? Tricky 1st question!! Seems a bit unfair if you ask me” wrote a third viewer.
One particularly agitated viewer stated: “This has weirdly outraged me… What a poorly worded question! I got the answer right but I do feel for those sat there under pressure and now feeling like a waste of a day.”
The backlash highlighted widespread disappointment with what many felt was a misleading question design.
Despite the controversial early question, the episode concluded successfully with two contestants, Jasmine and Maisy, making it to the final round.
Both contestants managed to answer the one per cent question correctly, each winning £46,500.
Two contestants took home £46,000 each
ITV
This isn’t the first time the 90 per cent question has managed to trick a few contestants, as a recent episode saw this question being asked: “Which of these does not make a word when the letters are placed in reverse order? A) Stun, b) dust, or C) snub.”
Fans playing along at home quickly flooded the show’s X hashtag with the correct answer of B, dust – as stun spelt nuts and snub read as buns backwards.
“Surely NO ONE will go out on this! #The1PercentClub,” one wrote ahead of the reveal.
However, two unlucky contestants did fumble the answer and were marked with a humiliating blue light.