![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ben-affleck-wins-million-dollar-prize-on-who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire.jpg\")
The money will go towards the Eastern Congo Initiative (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\nBen Affleck has won the million-dollar (\u20ac870,000) top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?<\/p>\n
The Hollywood actor, 53, competed on the US version of the game show alongside Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding.<\/p>\n
The money was pledged to Affleck\u2019s non-profit foundation, the Eastern Congo Initiative.<\/p>\n
At the start of the episode Affleck explained that the organisation supports community-based organisations in the African region, which he said had been \u201cseverely impacted by a very traumatic war\u201d.<\/p>\n
After appearing on the previous episode, Affleck and Ding had two more questions before securing the jackpot.<\/p>\n
The \u20ac500,000 question was: \u201cWhat achievement occurred just two months after a New York Times article said it wouldn\u2019t happen for one million to 10 million years?\u201d<\/p>\n
The possible answers were: splitting the atom, cloning a mammal, the first aeroplane flight, or the polio vaccine.<\/p>\n
Ding immediately said C \u2013 the first plane flight \u2013 and Affleck agreed.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/x.com\/EasternCongo\/status\/2082141601527206073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n
The actor said: \u201cI only remember this because it was a time in my life where I spent time looking up examples that the press got things wrong. Yeah, just randomly. And I sort of, vaguely, in my subconscious, remember The Times and the Wright brothers and that whole thing was 1905, 3 or 4, or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ding said: \u201cI think \u201803,\u201d which prompted host Jimmy Kimmel to joke he was \u201cso much smarter than Matt\u201d, referring to Affleck\u2019s close friend Matt Damon, who competed on the show last year with Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings and also won a million dollars.<\/p>\n
However, the pair were not completely confident and used their 50:50 lifeline to eliminate two incorrect answers, leaving the options of splitting the atom and the first plane flight.<\/p>\n
They correctly chose the latter, giving them the chance at the million-dollar question, which was: \u201cIn an annual Thanksgiving tradition, all but which of these have been the names of turkeys pardoned by a US president?\u201d<\/p>\n
The possible answers were: Peanut Butter & Jelly, Tater & Tot, Mac & Cheese, and Spaghetti & Meatball.<\/p>\n
The money will go towards the Eastern Congo Initiative (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n
Affleck and Ding used their Ask-the-Host lifeline, with Kimmel backing the final option.<\/p>\n
Using their final lifeline \u2013 Phone-A-Friend \u2013 they called one of Ding\u2019s friends, but he did not answer in time.<\/p>\n
Backing the answer chosen by Kimmel, they opted for Spaghetti & Meatball and won a million dollars, before being covered in confetti and being handed a huge cheque for the foundation.<\/p>\n
Other celebrity contestants featured on this season of the game show have included Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Keaton, Awkwafina, Leslie Odom Jr and Colin Jost.<\/p>\n
Other celebrity pairs to win the million dollars have included Ike and Alan Barinholtz in 2024, and Oscar Nunez and Kate Flannery in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Affleck has won the million-dollar (\u20ac870,000) top prize on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The Hollywood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-577051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}