Five Contestants Split £94,000 After Cracking The 1% Club Question That Left Viewers Completely Divided

The question required viewers to figure out several acronyms and determine which number they led toCredit: ITV

Six contestants reached the final stage of The 1% Club in an unusually crowded showdown — but one deceptively simple puzzle was all that stood between them and a share of a £94,000 prize.

The ITV game show, hosted by Lee Mack, challenges contestants with questions based on logic rather than traditional general knowledge. In this episode, an impressive six players survived long enough to face the notorious 1% question, supposedly answerable by only 1% of the public.

They were given just 30 seconds to solve it.

One Grid, Four Letters and £94,000 at Stake

The answer was 20 – did you get it right?Credit: ITV

The final puzzle featured a grid numbered from 1 to 49.

Starting from square 25, contestants were told that following the letters “SEEN” would lead to square 27. From there, “NEW” would take them to square 20.

They then had to determine which square “SEWN” would lead to.

It looked complicated enough to leave plenty of viewers scratching their heads, but the trick had little to do with mathematics.

The letters represented compass directions: South, East, West and North.

Following “SEWN” meant moving one square south, one east, one west and finally one north. Those movements effectively cancelled each other out, returning the player to the same square where they started.

The correct answer was therefore 20.

Five Contestants Saw the Trick

Every contestant in the final round bar one got the question correctCredit: ITV

Of the six finalists, only one failed to solve the puzzle.

The first contestant answered 12 and immediately appeared to realize she had made a mistake. The next player chose 20 — and the remaining four contestants arrived at exactly the same answer.

That meant five contestants had successfully beaten the 1% question.

The £94,000 prize was divided between them, leaving each winner with £18,800.

Viewers Couldn’t Agree on How Difficult It Really Was

The result triggered a very different contest among viewers at home.

Some considered it one of the easiest 1% questions they had seen, while others admitted the compass-direction wording left them completely confused. One viewer said they recognized that the puzzle involved compass points but still ended up with the wrong answer.

That divide captured exactly what makes The 1% Club so unpredictable: a question can appear baffling until one tiny pattern becomes clear — and once it does, the answer can suddenly seem almost obvious.

Even Mack has previously admitted that the show’s toughest puzzles can catch him out. He said he went through an entire series without successfully solving a 1% question, with a 5% question being the best he managed.