After struggling on the $250,000 question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jeopardy!‘s Jamie Ding and actor Ben Affleck returned to try to finish out their game.
The two played together after Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings and Affleck’s best friend, Matt Damon, played together last season and won the $1 million for charity. Did this pair do the same? Read on to find out.
Plus, here’s what Ding, the bureaucrat, from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, had to say about his time on the game show, playing with Affleck, being on Jeopardy!, and more. WARNING: This post contains spoilers about the July 29 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
The $500,000 question read, “What achievement occurred just two months after a New York Times article said it wouldn’t happen for ‘one million to ten million years’?” The options were splitting the atom, cloning a mammal, the first airplane flight, and the Polio vaccine.
“This one’s tricky,” Ding said. “I feel like it might be C.”
“That was my instinct,” Affleck said.
“I don’t think it’s D because that would just be mean. People were suffering,” Ding said. The two men debated the answer. Affleck shared that he spent a good amount of time looking up things that the press got wrong.
“In my subconscious, I remember the Wright brothers, but I’m not sure,” Affleck said. They decided to use their 50/50 lifeline, which left them with splitting the atom and the first airplane flight. This caused Affleck to curse and Ding to sigh.
Ding said that he felt like the first flight was more logical because he couldn’t imagine what the New York Times might be writing about when talking about atoms. They locked in C and were correct.
The $1 million question was “In an annual Thanksgiving tradition, all but which of these have been the names of turkeys pardoned by a U.S. President?” The options were Peanut Butter and Jelly, Tater and Tot, Mac and Cheese, and Spaghetti and Meatball.
“You must be kidding me,” Affleck said. After some debate about which lifeline to use, the contestant decided to ask the host, Jimmy Kimmel. He shared that he does a bit about this every year on Jimmy Kimmel Live! He said he remembered all of them except for spaghetti and meatball because he would have made a joke about it.
Even though they were sure Kimmel was right, they decided to phone Ding’s friend, Stephen Morrison. Morrison said he would just be guessing, but didn’t answer before the clock ran out.
They decided to lock in on spaghetti and meatballs. They were right and won the $1 million.
Disney/Eric McCandless
Did you feel pressure going into Millionaire knowing Ken Jennings won $1 million?
Jamie Ding: Ooh, a little bit, especially because we were basically the spiritual successors to Ken and Matt. I really wanted to win. It would be nice that both Matt and Ben were Millionaire champs, and I mean it was also like a really nice vote of confidence from the producers to put me on as the follow-up to Ken. Definitely wanted to win. I always wanted to win, but there were some additional considerations this time.
How do you feel now that you’re kind of on the same level as Ken, since you both won the $1 million?
Ooh, on the same level. Well, in the Millionaire context, it feels really pretty good. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. We got some good breaks, and we also made the most of our opportunity. And I thought we were a good team.
Did Ken give you any advice before going in?
He did not.
Did you pick Ben Affleck because Ken had picked Matt, and Matt and Ben are friends, or was there another reason why you picked Ben?
So I didn’t really pick Ben. I guess we were kind of an arranged marriage. But it was really cool when I found out that he was going to be my partner.
If you were by yourself, do you think you would have dropped out on the Spanish festival question? Would you have used a lifeline?
It’s hard to say because I’m a bit of a hoarder, like when you play video games and you collect the different items. I’m one of those people who collect a rare item and never, ever use it because they’re so so rare. So, I probably would have used the lifeline if I didn’t know it. But then also, I might have tried to chance it and saved that lifeline for later. Although on the other hand, there wasn’t that much later left.
Which would you say is harder: Millionaire of Jeopardy!?
Jeopardy! definitely. Millionaire presents its own challenges because, as Ken mentioned it last year, and it’s true, on Jeopardy!, if you don’t know a clue, there’s a very good chance that you’ll know the one that comes after that. It’s rare that you absolutely 100% have to get something right on Jeopardy! in order to advance, but that’s true of every question on Millionaire. Watching the Davids play, I would have gone out on the one that they went out on because I would not have said diamonds.
I guess the penalty for being wrong is much higher on Millionaire. But then on the other hand, in Millionaire, it’s multiple choice. You have to talk it out. You have a partner. You’ve got lifelines, and you’re typically sitting down, so those all help.
If you could have a lifeline on Jeopardy!, what would you pick? It doesn’t have to be the Millionaire ones.
I like phone a friend. It’s nice to talk to people. It’s amazing how phone a friend has just become part of the English language. Just goes to show the cultural impact that Millionaire has.
How did you prepare or study for Millionaire compared to Jeopardy!?
I did go back and watch the previous season. One thing I wanted to do was get a feel for what questions there might be and how they compared to Jeopardy!. I mean, it’s mostly subject matter. I do think that in Millionaire it’s more common that it’ll ask something like, “What is the most or the highest-grossing, tallest, oldest, most recent? Jeopardy! doesn’t usually ask that without some additional clue, so that was different. And then I did notice what Ken did with regards to strategy, when he asked to use the audience lifeline. He said, “Don’t talk about your thoughts until after the audience is voted because you don’t want to bias them,” and that’s something that I heard beforehand from the producers before Ben and I went out, and Ben and I also talked about that in our brief preparation session to avoid biasing the audience.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Wednesdays, 8/7c, ABC