Ben Affleck and Trivia Champion Win $1 Million for Eastern Congo Initiative on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Actor Ben Affleck and Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding secured the $1 million top prize on the revived Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, donating the winnings to the Eastern Congo Initiative.
Actor Ben Affleck teamed with Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding to claim the $1 million jackpot on the revived version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, with the prize earmarked for the Eastern Congo Initiative, the charity Affleck co-founded in 2010 to support community groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The pair entered the show with two questions remaining after a previous episode. For the $500,000 question they used a 50:50 lifeline and chose the answer “the first airplane flight,” recalling a historic New York Times article that had doubted the Wright brothers’ achievement. Host Jimmy Kimmel confirmed the answer was correct, noting the Wright brothers’ 1903 flight.
The final question asked which of four whimsical names had never been used for a turkey pardoned by a U.S. president during the annual White House Thanksgiving ceremony. After consulting the host and a teammate, Affleck trusted Kimmel’s suggestion of “Spaghetti & Meatball.” Kimmel later confirmed the answer was correct, securing the $1 million prize.
After the episode, Ding said Affleck’s decisiveness helped the team move forward, and he credited Kimmel’s reasoning for the successful gamble on the top prize.