In case it wasn’t clear after a 74-game “Jeopardy!” winning streak — not to mention winning the “Jeopardy!”Greatest of All Time Tournament back in 2020 — Ken Jennings is really good at trivia.
Now, the skills that have paid off so well on “Jeopardy!” over the years are transferring to a different game show.
In a celebrity edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” Jennings has paired up with movie star Matt Damon in an effort to win up to $1 million for Damon’s nonprofit water.org.
Going into Wednesday night’s episode, they were just two questions away from the $1 million prize.
Here’s a look at their run on the show — and if the unlikely duo pulled it off.
How did Ken Jennings and Matt Damon do on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’?
When Jennings initially announced he’d be competing on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,“ he did so with an air of confidence — and not just because he happens to now be the host of “Jeopardy!”
“Can’t believe I get to play with one of my generation’s great math prodigies,” Jennings wrote on Instagram, referring to Damon’s role in “Good Will Hunting.” “This is in the bag.”
During the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” season premiere last week, Jennings did most of the heavy lifting.
Damon, meanwhile, got relentlessly pummeled with insults by the game show’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, in an apparent effort to keep their longstanding faux feud alive.
But together, the pair reached a major threshold on the show: the $500,000 question.
That’s where Wednesday’s episode with Jennings and Damon kicked off.
The $500,000 question was a tough one for both Jennings and Damon, who spent several minutes mulling it over: “With another career path already established, who got his first taste of the entertainment world when he entered a Steve Martin look-alike contest?
- Dr. Oz
- Jerry Springer
- Bill Nye
- Anthony Bourdain
The pair opted to use a lifeline and ask Kimmel for assistance. Although Damon wasn’t initially on board with the move because he said he didn’t trust Kimmel to help him out, he changed his tune when the host said he did in fact happen to be 100% sure of the answer.
The answer: Bill Nye.
With the assist from Kimmel, Jennings and Damon officially moved on to the million-dollar question.
The pair didn’t need as much help with the final question — Jennings had a strong hunch — but they decided to use a 50-50 lifeline on the following question just to be safe: “Which of these words is often used to describe one of the most beautiful auditory effects on Earth: the sound made by the leaves of trees when wind blows through them?”
- Apricity
- Petrichor
- Susurrus
- Eudaemonia
Jennings was right about his hunch. The answer: Susurrus.
And with that, Jennings and Damon officially joined only chef David Chang and Ike and Alan Barinholtz as $1 million winners on the celebrity edition of the show.
“This was the least dramatic million-dollar moment in ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ history,” Kimmel joked.
“It is so awesome having Ken Jennings as your partner in a trivia game,” Damon said with a laugh.
Overall, throughout their run, most of the questions were significantly easier than the trivia Jennings faced on “Jeopardy!” — like naming the animal the popular snack Teddy Grahams are shaped like — but there were still a few that gave Jennings a reason to pause.
Here are a few other questions Jennings and Damon encountered on the show (answers are at the very bottom):
The $500 question: “Achieving statehood in 1912, what is the newest state with the word ‘New’ in its name?”
- New Hampshire
- New York
- New Mexico
- New Jersey
The $1,000 question: “‘Clucking’ in at just 34 seconds, the shortest Billboard Hot 100 hit ever is Jack Black’s ‘Steve’s Lava Chicken,’ a song from what 2025 film?”
- “A Minecraft Movie”
- “Snow White”
- “Lilo & Stitch”
- “Novocaine”
The $4,000 question: “Though Donatella will still serve as its Chief Brand Ambassador, what Italian fashion house was bought by rival Prada in 2025 for a reported $1.4 billion?”
- Armani
- Fendi
- Gucci
- Versace
The $8,000 question: “In Philadelphia, a sculpture that reads ‘YO’ from one side, but a different word from the other side, sits in front of a museum dedicated to what?”
- Astronomy
- Jazz
- Jewish history
- Classic cars
The $32,000 question: “Prince wrote the hit song ’1999’ after watching a documentary about what historic figure?”
- Nostradamus
- Rasputin
- Plato
- Charlemagne
The $64,000 question: “Which of these acclaimed novels is the only one that was originally written in English?”
- “Around the World in Eighty Days”
- All Quiet on the Western Front"
- “A Passage to India”
- “Love in the Time of Cholera”
The $125,000 question: “In a popular Spanish New Year’s Eve tradition, revelers attempt to eat and swallow 12 of which food before the midnight bell tolls 12 times?”
- Pimentos
- Grapes
- Anchovies
- Hazelnuts
Note: Jennings, who served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Spain, told Kimmel he has participated in this tradition himself.
The $250,000 question: “Believed to help them conserve energy, ‘vertical sleeping’ is a unique behavior exhibited by which of these animals?”
- Sperm whale
- Bactrian camel
- Canada goose
- Ring-tailed lemur
Note: Jennings and Damon used their first lifeline on this clue, choosing to ask the audience for help. The audience came through, with 57% selecting the correct answer.
Who else is competing on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’?
Other celebrity pairings for this season of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” include:
- Adam Devine and Anders Holm
- Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh
- Chloe Fineman and Jillian Bell
- Drew Carey and Aisha Tyler
- Gary Janetti and Brad Goreski
- Helen Hunt and Dan Bucatinsky
- Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins
- Joe Buck and Oliver Hudson
- Joel McHale and Jim Rash
- Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng
- Kal Penn and Jameela Jamil
- Mike Birbiglia and Atsuko Okatsuka
- Oscar Nuñez and Kate Flannery
- Sarah Silverman and Marc Maron
- Tramell Tillman and Zach Cherry
What else is Ken Jennings up to?
It’s a busy season for Jennings, who recently wrapped filming on Season 41 of “Jeopardy!”
The quiz show host has a cameo in “Happy Gilmore 2,” which hit Netflix on July 25, and also just released his latest book, “The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles.” Based on his online game Kennections, the book marks his first trivia-themed book in a decade, per Simon & Schuster.
Jennings will also return to host Season 42 of “Jeopardy!” in September. It’ll mark his fourth season as the show’s host, a role he previously told the Deseret News was his “dream job.”
“I was 100% confident I would not get a shot at the job — because that would be insane,” he told the Deseret News in 2023. “If I were hiring for that job, I would go with a sturdy broadcaster with decades of experience, not just somebody who happened to be good at the show many years ago. But luckily they took a chance on me.”
(Answers: 1. New Mexico; 2. “A Minecraft Movie”; 3. Versace; 4. Jewish history; 5. Nostradamus; 6. “A Passage to India”; 7. grapes; 8. sperm whale)