Sitting in the hot seat on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” just three months after a 31-game winning streak cemented his status as a “Jeopardy!” superstar, Jamie Ding seemed fairly at ease.
He was sitting next to Ben Affleck, his celebrity partner for the game, who also didn’t seem too worried about the series of questions they’d have to answer in their quest for $1 million.
At one point, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” host Jimmy Kimmel asked Ding if he ever got nervous during high-pressure moments in the spotlight.
“On ‘Jeopardy!’ you can always say, ‘Oh, I was about to buzz in and say that.’ But on ‘Millionaire,’ if you don’t know it, then your ignorance is laid bare for the world to see,” Ding said matter of factly.
“That’s a nice way to think about it,” Affleck quipped.
Competing for Affleck’s charity, Eastern Congo Initiative, the unlikely duo breezed through the questions during the show’s season premiere Wednesday night.
And although Affleck said early on that he was riding Ding’s coattails, the actor ended up taking the lead on the $250,000 question and making a surprising save that kept the pair in the game.
Jamie Ding, Ben Affleck teamed up for ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’
The Ding-Affleck pairing on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” mirrors last season, when “Jeopardy!” host and 74-game champ Ken Jennings competed on the show with Matt Damon.
During that game, Jennings did most of the heavy lifting while Damon got relentlessly pummeled with insults by Kimmel in an apparent effort to keep their long-standing faux feud alive.
The joke carried over into the new season premiere Wednesday night, with Kimmel calling Affleck “Matt Damon’s much better half” and praising Ding for having a better partner than Jennings did.
Overall, the questions were significantly easier than the trivia Ding faced on “Jeopardy!”
“Ben doesn’t need you at all,” Kimmel told Ding after Affleck cruised through the first handful of questions.
When the pair got to a $32,000 question about the McDonald’s menu, they decided to use their first lifeline and get the audience involved.
The $32,000 question: “Unless you specifically ask for more, which McDonald’s sandwich is served with half a slice of cheese?”
- McRib
- Filet-O-Fish
- McCrispy
- Big Mac
About half of the studio audience selected Filet-O-Fish. Both Affleck — who said he should’ve been more confident since he eats a lot of McDonald’s — and Ding noted they had been leaning toward that answer and locked it in to claim $32,000.
From there, Ding led the way in getting the pair to the $250,000 question — just three correct answers away from $1 million.
The $250,000 moment played out like a third-act plot twist.
Although Affleck had said early on that he was just there to ride Ding’s coattails, the actor ended up being the key to getting the $250,000 question.
The question: “During the annual Spanish festival El Colacho, men dressed in devil costumes run and jump over what?”
- Hot coals
- Stacks of money
- Babies
- Hats
Affleck revealed that he did in fact know the answer to this question — and it was all thanks to Jennings and Damon’s run on “Millionaire” last season.
The actor, who speaks Spanish, shared how he watched the episode from last season and was disappointed in himself when he didn’t know the answer to a question about a New Year’s Eve tradition in Spain.
That prompted him to look up other customs in Spain — including the festival El Colacho that was now at the heart of his $250,000 question.
Ding had been leaning toward “hot coals,” but Affleck was confident he had the right answer: babies.
“I trust you, Ben,” Ding said to his partner.
And with Affleck’s answer, the pair moved on to the $500,000 question.
Kimmel then asked Ding how it felt to be riding Affleck’s coattails.
“It feels good,” the “Jeopardy!” champ said. “It’s a team effort.”
The pair will return to the show next week to face the $500,000 question and potentially claim the $1 million prize.
Here are a few other questions Ding and Affleck encountered on the show (answers are at the very bottom):
The $4,000 question: “The inspiration for the word ‘crater,’ a ‘krater’ was a type of what in ancient Greece?”
- Robe
- Bowl
- Sword
- Sundial
The $8,000 question: “Pope Leo XIV broke Vatican protocol in 2025 when he wore a cap of what favorite baseball team?”
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Chicago White Sox
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Houston Astros
The $16,000 question: “The expression ‘X marks the spot’ was popularized after its use in what classic book?”
- “Treasure Island”
- “The Great Gatsby”
- “Little Women”
- “Animal Farm”
The $64,000 question: “Though she didn’t give him a songwriting credit, Billie Eilish quoted which philosopher in the lyrics to her hit, ‘Therefore I Am’?”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Immanuel Kant
- Aristotle
- René Descartes
The $125,000 question: “Engineer Joseph Strauss wrote a poem titled ‘The Mighty Task is Done’ to commemorate the completion of what landmark that opened in 1937?”
- Gateway Arch
- Empire State Building
- Panama Canal
- Golden Gate Bridge
Who else is competing on ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’?
Below is the full celebrity lineup for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” which features everything from a “Seinfeld” reunion to country superstar Brad Paisley:
- Larry and Cazzie David
- Ding and Affleck
- Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight
- Michael Keaton and Jon Lovett
- Jesse Eisenberg and Paul Giamatti
- Billy Porter and Leslie Odom Jr.
- Awkwafina and Paul Feig
- Colin Jost and Michael Che
- Will Forte and Taran Killam
- Brad Paisley and Clayton Kershaw
- Tig Notaro and Pete Holmes
- Krysten Ritter and Sarah Shahi
- Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn
- Michael Kosta and Wendi McLendon-Covey
- Brooks Nader and Sarah Jane Nader
- Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel
(Answers: Bowl; Chicago White Sox; “Treasure Island”; René Descartes; Golden Gate Bridge)