“16 CELEBRITIES THOUGHT THEY HAD IT FIGURED OUT… THEN ONE ‘EASY’ PUZZLE HUMILIATED THEM ALL.” A seemingly harmless anagram challenge on The 1% Club Celebrity Special turned into complete carnage when 16 famous faces crashed out in one of the most shocking mass eliminations the show has ever seen. What looked like a question viewers could solve from their living rooms instantly exposed the difference between playing comfortably at home and thinking clearly under studio lights, leaving celebrities visibly stunned as the results rolled in. The most brutal twist came after the reveal, when the answer suddenly seemed so obvious that many contestants could only laugh at themselves. Sometimes the hardest puzzles are the ones that convince you they’re easy.

CELEBS were left red-faced on The 1% Club after a simple anagram question wiped out a staggering 16 players.

Lee Mack hosted a Soccer Aid special of the ITV game show testing 100 celebrities and athletes on their logic and common sense.

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The star-studded lineup including Jill Scott, Iain Stirling, Paddy McGuinness, Tommy Fury, Tony Bellew, Chris Hughes and many more.

They hoped to reach the end and win up to £100,000 prize money for the UNICEF charity.

However, the 70% question saw an incredible 16 people eliminated in one fatal swoop.

Presenter Lee asked: Which of these is an anagram of LIONEL MESSI?

The players were then shown three possible answers: A) LONE MISSILE, B) LION IN SLIME and C) NO SMILES LEE.

Once the time limit was up, Lee revealed 16 people had answered incorrectly and were therefore out.

The right answer turned out to be A) LONE MISSILE.

Lee was devastated to learn his Soccer Aid pal Emmet J Scanlan and one of his footballing heroes Stuart Pearce were knocked out by the brain buster.

By the 1% question there were just two contenders remaining.

These were former footballer Clarke Carlisle – who played for QPR, Watford and Leeds – and comedian and ex-Soccer AM host, Lloyd Griffith.

Having reached the final question, Clarke and Lloyd had already won £10,000 for Unicef – and as the footballer also still had his pass intact another £1,000 was added to the guaranteed amount.

Unlike the regular show, the £11,000 was not in jeopardy and was guaranteed whatever happened.

But now it was their chance to secure the HUGE jackpot for the Soccer Aid charity.

Lee asked the pair: “In the opening verse to the original version of Three Lions, what TWO words feature exactly three times in the lyrics?”

The lyrics were shown on screen as a reference as they tried to figure out the answer in 30 seconds.

Here’s what they were show:

Everyone seems to know the score, they’ve seen it all before
They just know, they’re so sure
That England’s gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away
But I know they can play, ’cause I remember…

So did you spot the repetitive words in just 30 seconds?

When it came time to answer, Lloyd, 41, admitted he’d misread the question.

Meanwhile, Clarke, 45, offered up “it” and “know” as his answer to the puzzle.

It was soon revealed that Clarke was correct – and had bagged a whopping £100,000 for Unicef.

Fans took to X and sang the star’s praises, with one penning: “Clarke Carlisle you Brainiac!! Well done!”

Another shared: “Absolutely delighted for Clarke! Always had a brilliant brain – but came close to losing him!”

A third added: “Clarke Carlisle is a genius!!”

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