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ITV confirms future of popular quiz show after shock ratings boom – and even the host is stunned at its success
And what host Lee Mack had to say about the news
IT might come as no surprise to fans that The 1% Club will be back for more, but it was a bit of a shock for its host Lee Mack.
The ITV series took the Quiz Game Show gong at the National Television Awards in 2023, the same year it successfully launched a live play-along app, which topped the download charts.
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Now running for its third series on Saturday nights, I can reveal it has already been locked in for two more seasons.
An insider said: “The show has well and truly proved its popularity with viewers, and so it’s only natural to bring it back for not one, but two more rounds.
“This will also include two Christmas specials, which will air on ITV after the main series have run.”
The fourth and fifth series will follow the usual format, which sees 100 contestants battle it out to win a top prize of £100,000 by answering logic-based questions.
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Presenter Lee said: “Let’s be honest, the fact that I haven’t accidentally given a hundred grand to the wrong person or read out the answer instead of the question is as much a surprise to me as it is to everyone else.
“I’m really delighted that ITV is risking me steering this ship once again.
“I can’t wait to discover more of the nation’s brainboxes.”
The 1% Club — which has been sold overseas to countries including, France, Germany, Turkey and Spain — gives contestants a chance to take home the mega cash prize by correctly answering a question that only one per cent of people in the country would get right.
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But unlike most quizzes, no swotting up on general knowledge is required to do well.
The key to success is logic and common sense.
The 1% Club breaks ITV records with 'stupid' question - but can you pass Lee Mack's test?
Well cast
Lee told Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre podcast last year: “On the pilot episode I said, ‘There is no way that these 100 contestants are going to laugh at my jokes — they will be too busy trying to win the £100,000 prize. You need to make an audience laugh’.
“I didn’t get any laughs, but I did think, ‘This is a good format’.
“The show is just very well cast.
“They have cast people who are bright and fun — and even though you think about serious quizzers doing it, no same person will get it right every time.
“It starts ridiculously easy and ends ridiculously hard.”
ELLIE WAX A PUNCH
ELLIE LEACH made her debut in new theatre show, Cluedo 2 – The Next Chapter, this week.
The actress, who quit Coronation Street last year before competing in Strictly Come Dancing, plays Miss Scarlett in the comedy.
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She posed on stage with a candlestick at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, Surrey.
She will tour the country in the board game-inspired play – by Bafta Award-winning writers Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks – until July 27.
Ellie, who has recently struck up a romance with Strictly co-star Bobby Brazier, is joined in the production by Casualty star Jason Durr as Colonel Mustard.
JORDAN NORTH uncovers the truth about vaping in his first ever documentary.
The radio host is joined by experts in the one-hour BBC Three special on March 20.
He said: “Hopefully it will clear up misunderstandings and help vapers to make more informed choices.”
NICOLA: I MADE IT AS EXTRA
NICOLA COUGHLAN has admitted she was an extra on Made In Chelsea before hitting the big time in Channel 4’s Derry Girls.
Tonight on Rob Beckett’s Smart TV, she reveals that she got the call-up for the E4 reality series while she was a struggling actor.
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She tells fellow panellists Josh Widdicombe and Natasia Demetriou on the Sky Max quiz show: “Made In Chelsea is both more real and it’s more fake than I thought – because you stand in the back silently like proper extras, you can’t speak, and the relationships are real, but the environment is fake.
“It was Lucy Watson and Binky Felstead having a chat and then Spencer Matthews came in, and Lucy started bawling, crying, and Binky was shouting,‘Cut the cameras, she’s not doing this’.
“I was like, ‘This is the best day of my life’.”
BEYOND Paradise returns to the BBC for its second series on March 22.
The six-parter, on Fridays at 8pm, will see Kris Marshall and Sally Bretton joined by guest stars including All Creatures Great and Small’s Peter Davison and Van der Valk’s Emma Fielding.
RITCHIE’S A LAWN BREAKER
GUY RITCHIE has revealed he was landed with a £10,000 bill after Daniel Ings took a tumble on the set of his new Netflix series The Gentlemen.
The actor slipped as he ran on the grass in the gardens of Badminton House, owned by the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, which they had been forbidden from stepping on.
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Daniel said: “I f***ing stacked it, and that was the first take.”
Director Guy added: “Actually, we got told off by the Duke, because we were under instructions not to step on the grass, so that skid mark cost us about ten grand.”
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To which Daniel joked back: “At least it was those kinds of skid marks.”
The Gentlemen, inspired by the 2019 film of the same name, is available to stream on Netflix now.
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