A contestant on ITV’s The 1% Club has made show history after correctly answering the final question and walking away with a staggering £99,000.
Matthew became only the fourth person to win the popular Lee Mack-hosted quiz, securing the programme’s biggest-ever cash prize after correctly solving a final anagram that left the other remaining contestants stumped.
Matthew takes home £99,000
The episode saw 100 contestants compete for a potential £100,000 prize by tackling 15 increasingly difficult logic-based questions.
The game begins with a question that 90 per cent of the population surveyed answered correctly before gradually becoming more challenging. The competition eventually reaches the notoriously difficult 1% question.
By the final stage, five contestants still had a chance of claiming the prize.
The last question was an anagram, but the other four players admitted they had no idea what the answer could be.
Matthew, however, decided to take a chance and submit the word he believed fitted the puzzle.
After a tense pause, Lee Mack confirmed that he had got it right.
The answer was “elephant.”
Matthew, wearing an orange shirt and glasses, immediately broke into a huge smile and celebrated with a fist pump.
Lee then delivered the news that changed the contestant’s night.
“Congratulations Matthew! You are the winner to everything in the prize pot! That’s £99,000!”
Matthew’s win made him just the fourth contestant to successfully claim the 1% Club jackpot.
Fans praise Matthew for keeping his cool
The dramatic finish quickly caught the attention of viewers on social media.
One fan congratulated Matthew for the way he handled the pressure, writing: “Huge credit to you Matthew honestly that is sublime! Handled the pressure well, enjoy the prize.”
The programme’s format is designed to test logic rather than general knowledge, with each question based on how well contestants can work out patterns, wordplay and unusual puzzles.
That made Matthew’s final answer particularly impressive, given that he was competing against four other players who had also made it to the last stage.
Another 1% Club question divides viewers
The record jackpot came after another recent episode of the ITV quiz had sparked debate among viewers over one of its questions.
Contestants were asked: “Without reordering any letters, how many animals appear in the sequence below?”
The puzzle presented the sequence:
PHEASANTORTOISEALION
Lee Mack later explained that six animals could be identified within the sequence: pheasant, sealion, ant, seal, tortoise and lion.
However, some viewers were not convinced by the answer.
One viewer posted: “#The1PercentClub An ant is NOT an animal! Outrage!”
The debate highlighted exactly why the show can leave contestants and viewers scratching their heads: seemingly straightforward questions can depend on how the wording and answers are interpreted.
Some of the show’s toughest questions
The 1% Club has developed a reputation for questions that can appear deceptively simple while leaving even confident contestants struggling.
One previous puzzle asked viewers to work out Amir’s birthday based on the dates given for Edna and Jen. The solution depended on counting the position of words in the sentence, ultimately placing Amir’s birthday on January 24.
Another memorable question came from The Chase, where contestants were asked which food someone with a nightshade intolerance should avoid. The options were sweetcorn, potatoes and carrots, with potatoes being the correct answer.
Meanwhile, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has also produced its share of head-scratching moments, including a question concerning the surnames of Best Actress Oscar winners from 2000 onwards.
Matthew’s victory caps a remarkable episode
With £99,000 secured, Matthew managed something only three contestants had done before him on The 1% Club.
His victory came down to a single word—and the willingness to trust his own reasoning when the other finalists could not find an answer.
After Lee Mack confirmed that “elephant” was correct, the contestant’s reaction said everything about the scale of the moment.
For Matthew, one final puzzle had turned into a £99,000 life-changing win and a place in The 1% Club history.