Serena is about to cast a vote for her local council. She picks the candidate with a name that is an anagram of ‘electoral system’. Who does she vote for? A) Caroline Genteel, B) Scarlett Moseley, C) Nicola Gollete, D) Phil Gobolton, E) Lexi Plot. You have thirty seconds… Go!
If you picked B, Scarlett Moseley, you’d be right. While you could go through each answer one by one, there are a few shortcuts- Scarlett Moseley is the only one of the names that contains the letters “S”, “R”, “Y”, or “M”, so spotting that jumps you straight to the answer. But with only thirty seconds, it might be tough to spot that. And did I mention that there’s $100,000 on the line?
The above is an example of a “70%” question from the UK version of the new television series “The 1% Club.” What this means is that the show expects roughly 70% of contestants to get this question correct within 30 seconds. Every episode, the show tests a group of 100 contestants to a series of brain teasers starting at 90% and ending at 1%, with up to $100,000 on the line if a contestant is the sole solver of the final question.
In the US, the show is currently airing on Fox, hosted by Joel McHale. This is technically season two, since there was a direct-to-streaming Amazon season last year, and the show has been airing for several years in the UK, but to many audiences, the show is brand new.
I’m really excited about what this show offers. The 1% Club’s bite-sized riddles make for easy viewing and seem to have positioned the show better for a casual audience. Every episode starts with an easy “90%” puzzle, so pretty much every viewer at home will be able to take away at least a few victories when playing along at home.
For puzzle enthusiasts out there, if you’re in the US or UK, this could be a VERY good opportunity to have a lot of fun while taking a stab at a large prize! This US season had ten episodes and the latest UK season had sixteen- that’s 2600 people this year who got a shot at playing the games! If the US version gets renewed, I will definitely be applying, and I encourage you to do the same.
If you want a deeper view into what these puzzles are like, many of the brain teasers from the UK version are posted online- you can check out the questions & answers from season 4 here.
If you apply for the show and get cast, good luck!
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