FOX will be introducing a new American game show that originated in the U.K. (currently airing on ITV) called “The 1% Club” hosted by actor and comedian Patton Oswalt.  Rather than answering trivia questions, this game tests 100 players’ abilities to use logic, common sense, and math skills to show their overall smarts against each other.

Outside of the studio show, a narrator explains that some field work was done to come up with the questions that fall under the various categories of 90%, 80%, and so on.  Out of one hundred people who were tested on a number of questions, the amount that they got right vs. wrong is how the show came up with getting to the 1 percent of people being able to answer the final question.

The one hundred contestants sit in chairs around a circular stage above a wall of lights.  They answer the questions via ipads which each contestant is given.  Once they get a question wrong, they are out of the game, and no longer have access to the ipad, thus unable to answer any more questions.  However, they do remain seated at their station and can cheer on their fellow contestants still playing the game.

Was there any cheating?  Well….we did witness one eliminated contestant helping another one with some of the answers. 

THE GAME PLAY:

The winner of the 1% round, can win up to $100,000.  How it works is that each player has $1000.  When a player gets a question incorrect, their $1000 gets thrown into the grand pot that the other contestants are playing for.  As people drop off, that pot builds and builds and if every contestant gets eliminated then the pot can potentially grow to $100,000

If a player chooses to leave with their $1000, then that does not get contributed to the overall total.  In the game that we watched, only one player chose to leave with their $1000 when given the opportunity.

If there is more than one person at the end of the game who answers the 1% question correctly, then they split the amount between (or amongst) them.

The questions start off easy and get difficult with each round of the show.  90% of people were able to answer the first question correctly.  Then, 80% were able to answer the next one..then 70%, and so on. 

Once the show reaches the 50% mark, players can use a special “pass” from that point on if they feel that they can not answer a question.  They can use this pass only once.  At another point in the game, remaining contestants have the opportunity to leave the game with thier $1000.

THE FINAL ROUND:

By the final round, there were five players left.  Those final five contestants were given the option to leave with $2000.  Two of those players took that option and left the show with $2000 before seeing what the final question was. 

The 1% question was a mind-bender puzzle consisting of answering the correct number of triangles within a bigger triangle.   Two contestants got it right and they split a grand total prize money of $98,000.

The 1% Club hosted by Patton Oswalt

The host of the show is Patton Oswalt who is the best fit for this show. He’s very witty, funny and great at making entertaining banter with the contestants.   As Patton is given cues by producers on which contestants to pick out to make conversations with, he digs into their backstories, and where they’re from.  TV viewers will get a kick out of learning about various contestants’ quirks and why they think they will be part of the 1% club at the end of the show.

THE LOGIC:
These are questions that tested overall intelligence, and math everyone will remember when being probed while taking the SATs in high school to determine whether or not one would continue on to a good college.

One example of a question, or puzzle that was seen on 1% Club game show was:  If a coin is tossed four times and comes up heads every time, what is the percentage of it coming up tails?  From a multiple choice answer selection, the correct answer is 50%.

Another question got a few people stumped when it asked what word becomes less after adding two letters?  The answer was Few.  Few become fewer after adding the “er.” However, one contestant was certain that the answer could also be “lesser” and he should be allowed to stay in the game.

It took a crew of real game show Standards & Practices to come out and tell him that, that can’t be the answer because “lesser” is NOT a word. 

Some names attached to this project are Wes (possibly Bentley), and Drew Carey.  “The 1% Club” game show is set to air on FOX network in June 2024.