A Signal Mountain man is $24,000 richer after appearing on the new Fox game show “The 1% Club.”
Although Colman Bell had to share the $97,000 grand prize with three other contestants, he explained in a phone interview after the episode aired on Monday that he was the only one of the four who did not miss a question to get to the final puzzle.
“There were four of us who made it to the end, but I was the only one who got everything right,” he said. “I was the only one who didn’t pass on any questions. I’m pretty proud of that.”
(PLAY: Times Free Press puzzles and games)
Each episode begins with 100 contestants from across the country being asked a series of increasingly difficult, logic-based questions. The answers are based more on practical problem-solving than theoretical knowledge, more on how each contestant’s brain works than on academic knowledge.
The quiz starts with a question that 90 out of 100 people answered correctly in a general survey and leads to the 1% question that only 1 out of 100 people answered correctly.
Bell, 28, a 2013 graduate of Signal Mountain High School, said he has been a fan of game shows his entire life and can’t think of a better hobby than “solving puzzles for money.” He monitors various social media for casting ads. He was intrigued by the premise of “The 1% Club,” which is based on the British original.
Contributed photo / Colman Bell is seen on the set of “The 1% Club”.After completing a lengthy application form that “asked about my hopes and dreams and my ability to compete,” he was contacted by a candidate coordinator for an interview and subsequently received an email informing him that he had been selected to appear on the show.
“That was over a year ago,” he said.
The Fox show was originally scheduled to premiere in July 2023, but taping was pushed back to February due to actor and writer strikes. He had to buy his plane ticket to Los Angeles, but his winnings “more than paid for the flight,” he said.
(READ MORE: Movies and TV shows affected by Hollywood actors and screenwriters strike)
Filming for the hour-long episode took a full day, he said. During the downtime, producers went over the rules of the game and hair and makeup artists prepared 100 contestants for the cameras.
Participants have 30 seconds to answer each of the 15 questions.
“I got most of them pretty quickly,” Bell said.
He spent the longest time puzzling over a graphic of repeating lines and circles, wondering which of three patterns would come next in the sequence.
“I figured out pretty early on that they had to be clock hands,” he said. When he discovered that the lines represented hour, half-hour and minute hands, he knew the answer.
Contributed photo / Colman Bell of Signal Mountain says it has been his lifelong dream to appear on a game show.“This was the task that took me the longest,” he said. “It was tricky, but it was fun.”
(SUBSCRIBE: Get breaking Chattanooga area news, sports and entertainment delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletters at timesfreepress.com/newsletters.)
Bell said the adrenaline rush of victory was dampened by the “agony” of the non-disclosure agreement that participants had to sign.
“I came back to the hotel full of energy and couldn’t say anything to anyone,” he said. “It was horrible. Believe me, since the episode aired, I haven’t done anything else (but talk about it).”
Bell said he particularly liked host Patton Oswalt. Their frequent banter mostly revolved around Bell’s job as a ticket seller on the Incline Railway. The episode’s title, “Tick, Tick, Money,” is based on a comment Bell made, and he is the “funicular employee” listed in the Amazon Prime streaming teaser. Bell has since changed jobs and works in the warehouse in Rock City.
“A much less TV-friendly job,” he joked.
In addition to the nondisclosure agreement, Bell signed an exclusivity clause prohibiting him from appearing on another game show for at least three months after the episode airs. After that period expired in October, he has been focusing on “Person, Place or Thing,” which is filming in Atlanta.
“I’m counting the days,” he said. “Now I’m infected with the virus. It’s really the funniest thing I’ve ever done.”
Contact Lisa Denton at [email protected] or 423-757-6281.
