Jamie Ding and Ben Affleck won $1 million for charity on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on Wednesday night, landing the top prize for Eastern Congo Initiative after getting through the last two questions. The win turned a celebrity game-show appearance into a rare seven-figure payout and gave Ding another major victory to add to his already unusual run.
The million-dollar result mattered because the pair had only the $500,000 and $1 million questions left when the game tightened. Ding, who is already known as a Jeopardy! champion, said he felt nervous toward the end because it was a lot of money. He also said Affleck was more decisive as the pressure built, pushing the team forward when hesitation might have stopped them cold.
The final question centered on a simple bit of presidential trivia: which names had been given to Thanksgiving turkeys pardoned by U.S. presidents. Lifelines did not settle it. Phoning a friend and asking Jimmy Kimmel went nowhere useful, and the pair had to make the call without a clean answer in hand. They settled on the idea that no president had pardoned a turkey named Spaghetti & Meatball, and that proved correct.
Affleck said it was a great honor to ride Ding’s coattails all the way, a line that fit a game in which the Oscar-winner leaned on the Jeopardy! champion’s quicker recall. Ding’s history helps explain why: earlier this year he put together a 31-game Jeopardy! winning streak, the fifth longest ever, and collected $880,000 along the way. That streak already put him in rare company, and the Millionaire win moves him into the small group of players who have won top prizes on two different U.S. game show franchises.
That company includes Ken Jennings, who won the grand prize on a Millionaire episode last year and also won Grand Slam, and Ike Barinholtz, who has won both Millionaire and Celebrity Jeopardy!. Matt Damon also won the grand prize on Millionaire last year with Jennings as a partner. Ding, who works at a New Jersey housing and mortgage financing agency, said he will compete in the Tournament of Champions in August and that he is watching Jeopardy! and keeping tabs on the competition, calling it a barn burner.
The win matters most because it was not just a flashy TV moment. It sent $1 million to Eastern Congo Initiative and showed how one hard final question can still turn a studio game into a serious charity haul. For Ding, the next test comes in August, where he will try to turn this year’s winnings and momentum into another title run.
