14 Players Were Still In The Game… Then Five Ordinary Words Turned A 30-Second Question Into A Mass Wipeout. Lee Mack Placed Five Seemingly Harmless Words In Front Of The Contestants: Doggie, Blazes, Hotel, Prizes And Rabbit. Nothing About Them Looked Particularly Threatening. But The Rules Changed Everything. Contestants Had Just 30 Seconds To Work Through A Series Of Conditions And Find The Single Word That Could Satisfy Them All. The Longer They Examined The Options, The More Complicated The Puzzle Seemed. Then The Clock Hit Zero. 14 Contestants Were Gone. The Shock Came When The Correct Solution Was Revealed And The Logic Suddenly Clicked Into Place. Every Clue Had Been There — But The Contestants Had Only Seconds To Put Everything Together. How Did Five Simple Words Manage To Wipe Out 14 Players In Just 30 Seconds?!

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The 1% Club limerick question eliminates 14 contestants in just 30 seconds

A tricky word puzzle on The 1% Club left 14 contestants out of the game after they failed to identify the only answer that satisfied a series of seemingly simple rules.

The ITV quiz show, hosted by Lee Mack, regularly challenges its 100 contestants with logic and reasoning questions that must be solved within 30 seconds. As incorrect answers send players home, £1,000 is added to the prize pot for every elimination.

But one 30% question proved particularly unforgiving.

"14 Out" game show set with contestants.

Could you solve the limerick puzzle?

Lee introduced the challenge by explaining that a contestant named Jamil was writing a limerick and needed a specific word to complete its final line.

The word had to meet four conditions:

  • It had to contain two syllables.
  • It could have only two different vowels.
  • It had to begin with an even-numbered letter.
  • It needed to contain at least three letters from the second half of the alphabet.

Contestants were given five possible answers:

Doggie, Blazes, Hotel, Prizes and Rabbit.

With just 30 seconds to work through the clues, the remaining players were visibly puzzled as they tried to identify the word that met every requirement.

The answer was ‘Prizes’

Quiz question: find the two-syllable word with only two different vowels, starting with an even-numbered letter, and containing at least three letters from the second half of the alphabet. Choices: Doggie, Blazes, Hotel, Prizes, Rabbit.

When time was up, Lee revealed that the correct answer was Prizes.

The word fits the conditions: it has two syllables, uses two different vowels, begins with P, the 16th letter of the alphabet, and contains at least three letters from the second half of the alphabet.

However, 14 contestants failed to select it and were eliminated.

The large number of players knocked out made the 30% question one of the more dramatic moments of the episode.

Another question had already caused a major exit

Screenshot of a game show question: "John writes with his right hand and the last word he'd write if he was writing this sentence would be 'be'. If Keith writes with his left hand, what would be the last word he would write in the sentence above?"

The limerick puzzle was not the only question to cause problems during the episode.

Earlier in the show, an apparently straightforward common-sense question at the 70% level eliminated 23 contestants.

Lee asked:

“John writes with his right hand and the last word he’d write if he was writing this sentence would be ‘be’. If Keith writes with his left hand, what would be the last word he would write in the sentence above?”

The answer was simply “be”.

The fact that Keith was left-handed did not change the order in which he would write the words, meaning the final word remained the same.

Despite the apparent simplicity of the question, 23 players answered incorrectly and were eliminated.

Screenshot of the "23 Out" game show set.

Viewers couldn’t believe 23 players got it wrong

The result prompted plenty of reactions from viewers watching at home.

One questioned how 23 people could have been eliminated by the question, pointing out that being left-handed does not mean writing words in reverse order.

Another suggested that too many contestants had overthought the puzzle.

A third viewer summed up their disbelief with: “TWENTY THREE out on THAT?!?!”

The episode therefore delivered two very different tests of logic: a 30% limerick question that eliminated 14 players, and a seemingly obvious 70% question that removed another 23.

The 1% Club is available to watch on ITV1 and stream on ITVX.