The 1% Club viewers divided over ‘easiest question ever’ after £96,000 finale

@1percentclubitv Get those thinking caps on… #The1PercentClub #quiztok #quiztime #quizchallenge ♬ original sound – The 1% Club

A question that looked almost laughably simple left one contestant empty-handed on The 1% Club, while viewers watching at home were split over whether it really deserved to be the show’s final 1% challenge.

The episode, which aired on 25 January, ended with Wayne, Courtney and Sam facing the deciding question. All three had made it through to the final and opted to risk their standard £10,000 prize for the chance to share a much larger £96,000 pot.

Their challenge was to count every dot used in the wording of the question, including dots appearing in punctuation and letters.

They had just 30 seconds.

Could you count all the dots?

The question asked:

“How many dots (i.e. ‘.’) – including any used in punctuation and letters… – are used in writing this question?”

The correct answer, as host Lee Mack explained, was 17.

It sounds straightforward, but the question contained a few details that could easily catch contestants out under the pressure of a ticking clock.

For example, there is a dot above the letter “i” in “i.e.”, which could easily be overlooked while someone focuses on the two punctuation dots in the abbreviation. There is also the dot beneath the question mark at the very end, which can be missed if a contestant assumes they have finished counting once they reach the final word.

That proved costly for Courtney, who gave the wrong answer.

Wayne and Sam, meanwhile, both got it right and ultimately walked away with £48,000 each.

Viewers thought it was far too easy

While Courtney’s mistake showed that the question was not quite as simple as it appeared under the pressure of the final round, plenty of viewers were unconvinced that it belonged in the 1% category.

Some described it as the “easiest 1% question ever”, while others argued that it should have been a “90% question” instead.

There is, of course, a difference between spotting the answer from the comfort of the sofa and finding it while a 30-second countdown is running and £96,000 is on the line.

The reactions also showed that not everyone who felt confident about the question actually got it right.

A number of viewers said they had counted 16, meaning they had missed a single dot somewhere along the way. The dot above the “i” and the final dot beneath the question mark appeared to be particularly easy to overlook.

Others fell into a different trap altogether.

Some viewers answered two, apparently interpreting the wording as asking how many dots were used in the phrase “this question”. Given that The 1% Club regularly builds trick elements into its questions, that interpretation was perhaps understandable.

In the studio, however, there was no trick to the final number. Count every dot in the question and the total comes to 17.

For Courtney, missing just one was enough to end their run without a share of the prize. Wayne and Sam managed to spot them all and left with £48,000 apiece.