ITV’s The 1% Club could have been mistaken for University Challenge with its latest episode, leaving viewers baffled.
In the game show hosted by Lee Mack, 100 people begin the show by answering the same question.
If they get it wrong, they are no longer qualified to continue playing, and this continues for 15 questions, which progressively get more difficult.
Their complication level is judged by putting the same questions to the public and seeing what percentage get it right. The final question is answered correctly by only 1%.
On the Easter weekend episode, the 100 players were dwindled to just two, who got to play for a share of a £96,000 prize pot.
Contestants Maisie and Alex were asked: ‘Given that: 0+100 =100, 1+99 = 100, 2+98 =100, What is the sum of all the whole numbers between zero and 100?’
The baffling mathematics questions would probably challenge even Countdown stars Carol Vorderman and Rachel Riley due to the ‘trick’ element.
Both contestants made the same honourable guess within the 30-second time limit – 5000, but Lee, 55, informed them it was incorrect.
‘There are 50 pairs that total 100. That makes 5000, but there is also the number 50 in the middle, which is not in a pair but also needs to be counted, giving a total of 5050,’ he explained.
Luckily, before answering the question they both decided to settle on £5,000 each rather than risk for the £96,000 question.
‘You played it perfectly,’ Lee told them.
Those watching at home also weren’t able to arrive at the right answer either and took to X to share their frustration.
‘I didn’t even try with that one. Maths is hard enough on a calculator for me, never mind doing it in my head in 30 seconds,’ shared Sarah.
Fellow viewer Ian Taylor added: ‘Nope, didn’t even understand the answer……’
Other viewers remarked that they ‘hated’ the question, and compared the series’ difficulty to the famously tough University Challenge.
One person suggested renaming it was actually a ‘0.1%’ question and found that even a calculator didn’t help. Perhaps the fourth series could be called ‘The 0.1% Club: Calculators don’t help’ but it may be slightly less catchy.
Earlier this month, the show broke a record leaving Lee stunned, as more contestants (39) used their one free pass than knew the answer.
The question was: ‘Which of these is the odd one out in this CONUNDRUM? A. cord, B. norm, C. noun, and D. moon.’
The answer was moon – the only word that couldn’t be formed from the letters in ‘conundrum’.
The 1% Club continues Saturday 8:30pm on ITVOne
