£99,000 vanished because of one word puzzle that looked far too easy to fail. After surviving every round of The 1% Club, Phil and Anne rejected the guaranteed £10,000 and gambled everything on the biggest prize of the night, convinced they could crack the final challenge. Instead, one deceptively simple puzzle exposed a hidden pattern neither finalist could see, wiping out both jackpot dreams in an instant. As Lee Mack revealed the solution, viewers flooded social media, with many admitting they had fallen into the exact same trap while others insisted the finale was one of the most brutal puzzles ever shown on the programme.

Lee Mack hosts the ITV quiz, renowned for its challenging brainteasers.

Screenshot of a game show question: "All the words in this list have something specific in common. What is it?"  The words are: Into, Therefore, Evaluate, Benign.
Could you work out this tricky question on The 1% Club?Credit: ITV
The 1% Club host.
Lee Mack hosts the popular ITV game showCredit: ITV
Contestant on The 1% Club.
Contestant Phil had a crack at the tricky final questionCredit: ITV

Contestants who reach the final round – the 1% question – have a chance to win up to £100,000.

One episode saw three people reach the very end – Victoria, Phil and Anne.

Victoria opted to take her share of £10,000, while the other two decided to play for the £99,000 jackpot.

The question was: “All the words in this list have something specific in common. What is it?”

Meanwhile, the four words were: Into, Therefore, Evaluate and Benign.

Anne shared she’d answered that all four words “had names in them”.

As for Phil, he’d gone with that all four contained two words – but then ruled this out due to benign.

Unfortunately for the pair, both of them turned out to be incorrect and lost out on the prize.

Lee revealed: “They all end with the sound of a number – two, four, eight and nine.”

It’s not the first time contestants have been left flummoxed on The 1% Club

On another occasion, a whopping 25 people were knocked out on a counting question.

An image popped up on to the big screen that showed a brick wall with golden bricks, but some of the bricks in the middle were missing.

The question asked: “How many bricks are missing from this wall?”

As the 30 seconds ticked down, Lee quipped: “Where are Pink Floyd when you need them.”

The puzzle appeared to be just a simple matter of counting.

The 1% Club’s Most Difficult Questions

The 1% Club sees 100 contestants try and make it to the 1% question and be in with a chance to win a share of the jackpot. Here are just some of the show’s most difficult teasers.

However, after the time was up it was revealed that a whopping 25 people had got it wrong, wiping themselves out of the competition and leaving 70 competitors remaining.

But were you able to work out the correct answer?

It was later revealed to be 12.

The 1% Club airs on ITV1 and ITVX.

Screenshot of a game show screen displaying a word puzzle:  "Into," "Therefore," "Evaluate," and "Benign" are listed; the answer is that they all end with the sound of a number (2, 4, 8, 9).
Did you work out the right answer?Credit: ITV

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