Jamie Ding is headed back to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on July 29, and he is doing it with Ben Affleck at his side. The former Jeopardy! champion answered fan questions while previewing the finish, then said he was drawing the pair's game toward a $1 million prize for the Eastern Congo Initiative.
Ding, who introduced himself by saying he was a former Jeopardy! contestant and a current Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestant, has turned a quick run on quiz TV into a far bigger spotlight. He won $885,605 on Jeopardy!, including a second-place prize in his 32nd game, and is set to compete in the 2027 TOC. That history is part of why his return now has so much attention: he is not just another celebrity player, but a newly familiar face who already knows how to survive under a clock.
That background matters because Ding said Jeopardy! taught him how to handle the pressure of being in Los Angeles and being on TV, both useful skills for a game that can swing on a single answer. He said he wants to savor each question and that one of the appeal of Millionaire is having more time to talk things through, yet he and Affleck were almost stumped on the $250,000 question. He also said he was super excited to have Affleck as his teammate, calling the pairing a strange but fitting match: Ding said he became a celebrity about three months ago, while Affleck has been famous for a very long time.
The contrast showed up in the way Ding presented the pair. He drew Affleck as Batman and had the character say, 'Martha! Why did you say that name?' and he even joked that he could not tell whether the line was an insult or Affleck's choice because he could not ask him now. Ding also said his favorite fun fact is that e.e. cummings' gravestone is written in all capital letters even though the poet wrote his name in lowercase. It is a small detail, but it fits the way he approaches the game: with time to think, and with a habit of noticing the odd thing in plain sight.
What matters next is simple. Ding and Affleck finish their game on July 29, and the only question left is whether the pair converts all that careful talk into the $1 million tied to the Eastern Congo Initiative.
