Former contestant reveals Lee Mack’s persona behind scenes of ITV’s quiz show The 1% Club

A former contestant on The 1% Club TV show has opened up on their experience with host Lee Mack behind the scenes. The premise of the show allows 100 people to answer increasingly difficult questions that only one per cent of the population can answer correctly. And one by one they are eliminated from the show.

The guest, only known as Billie, appeared on the ITV show in October 2023.

In a recent interview, the former hopeful claimed that Lee Mack’s upbeat persona on screen was completely different to what they experienced.

Speaking to the Express, Billie said: “My husband and I are big fans of Lee Mack. We think he’s incredible. He’s so quick-witted that I don’t think there are many people on telly that can really keep up with him.”

Former contestant reveals Lee Mack’s persona behind scenes of ITV’s quiz show The 1% Club

And while the couple hoped to experience the same interaction he has on screen, it seems his communication was few and far between as he was preoccupied with dealing with sound technicians and the director.

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Billie said that when “Lee did appear, his focus was very much on the job at hand. That said, when he did come onto the set, he was obviously wired for sound and a director was talking to him and he didn’t have much room for communication with anybody except for the director.”

She added: “There wasn’t an awful lot of opportunity for him to have free flow conversation with us on set. You could tell he was on it trying to just do his best, but constantly had somebody in his ear going to the next thing, onto the next thing.”

But it wasn’t just their interaction with Lee that was a talking point, so too was the application process.

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Billie explained that producers warmed to their “cheeky and forthcoming” answers when applying to appear on the show.

This question baffled both viewers and contestants

The ITV production team also advised them on how to navigate social media comments post-show and provided tips on privacy settings which would help them avoided the harsh reality of online trolls.

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Billie and her husband stayed on the show for only three questions.

The questions that appear on the show are taken from the percentage of people who answered the questions correctly.

During Billie’s episode in 2023, it was a 60 per cent question that many contestants found difficult.

An image appeared on the studio’s large screen which showed a brick wall with some bricks missing.

The question was “How many bricks are missing from this wall?”

And the correct answer was 12 but 25 people failed to answer the question correctly.