Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 right
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What happened
Ben Affleck teamed up with former “Jeopardy!” champion Jamie Ding to win the top $1 million prize on ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, in an episode that aired Wednesday. The winnings will be donated to the Eastern Congo Initiative, the nonprofit Affleck co-founded in 2010 to support communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to both NBC News and Page Six, the pair entered the episode with two questions remaining. The $500,000 question asked which achievement occurred just two months after a New York Times article claimed it wouldn’t happen for “1 million to 10 million years.” The four choices were the first airplane flight, splitting the atom, cloning a mammal, and the polio vaccine. Affleck and Ding initially leaned toward the first airplane flight, with Affleck recalling a period in his life when he researched instances of the press getting predictions wrong, and vaguely remembering a New York Times connection to the Wright brothers around 1903. They used their 50:50 lifeline to narrow the choices to the airplane and splitting the atom, then correctly chose the first airplane flight to advance.
The final million-dollar question asked which of four names had never belonged to a turkey pardoned by a U.S. president: Peanut Butter & Jelly, Tater & Tot, Mac & Cheese, or Spaghetti & Meatball. Affleck reacted with disbelief and considered using the Phone-a-Friend lifeline, but when Ding’s friend failed to answer in time, the two took Kimmel’s suggestion and selected Spaghetti & Meatball as the fake turkey names. After a tense pause, the show confirmed they were correct, prompting Affleck and Ding to embrace and celebrate as confetti fell.
Affleck’s remarks on Congo and Ebola
During the episode, Affleck discussed his 15 years of work with the Eastern Congo Initiative. He noted that the region is currently facing an Ebola crisis, and said the game-show winnings were intended in part to help contain the outbreak’s spread, according to NBC News. NBC also reported that Kimmel jokingly told Affleck he was “so much smarter” than his close friend Matt Damon, referencing Damon’s own million-dollar win on the show a year earlier for his charity Water.org, when Damon was paired with all-time “Jeopardy!” record-holder Ken Jennings.
Jamie Ding’s background
Both outlets note that Ding is a former “Jeopardy!” contestant known for a 31-game winning streak, which places him fifth on the show’s all-time list of consecutive winners. Ken Jennings, who now hosts “Jeopardy!,” remains the record-holder with 74 consecutive wins.
How the coverage compares
NBC News and Page Six largely agree on the core facts — the win, the charity beneficiary, the turkey-themed final question, and the celebratory reaction — but differ in emphasis. Page Six provides a more detailed, blow-by-blow account of both the $500,000 and $1 million questions, including the specific answer choices and the lifelines used (the 50:50 and Phone-a-Friend), as well as Kimmel’s on-air quip comparing Affleck favorably to Matt Damon. NBC News spends more time on Affleck’s personal remarks about the Eastern Congo Initiative and the ongoing Ebola crisis, and it also connects the episode to a separate, unrelated personal event: the recent death of Affleck’s mother, Christopher “Chris” Affleck, following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. NBC reports she died on June 2, with her obituary appearing in The Boston Globe the week before this episode aired, and notes her stated wish to see her grandson’s high school graduation, which she attended two days before her death. Page Six does not mention this personal detail at all, focusing solely on the game-show narrative.
Neither source specifies the exact date the episode was filmed, though NBC notes it aired about a year after Matt Damon’s similar win with Ken Jennings for Water.org, suggesting these celebrity charity episodes may be a recurring feature of the show.
Why it matters
The episode highlights a recurring trend of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” hosting celebrity contestants who play not for personal gain but to direct winnings toward charitable causes, following Matt Damon’s prior appearance. For Affleck, the win brings renewed public attention to the Eastern Congo Initiative and the Ebola outbreak affecting Congolese communities, a cause he has supported for 15 years. The pairing of a Hollywood star with a record-setting trivia champion also underscores the show’s strategy of blending celebrity appeal with expert-level trivia skill to maximize entertainment value and charitable impact.
Sources
Featured photo: U.S. Department of State from United States via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)