Jimmy Kimmel and Ken Jennings on Tonight's Big ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' Win — and How Matt Damon ‘Crashed' the Show
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Here was the final question: 'Which of these words is 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?' The correct answer was 'susurrus.' Jennings had a pretty good idea that was the answer — and was further emboldened when he and Damon used the show's '50/50' lifeline.
'It's not my first time on 'Millionaire' and my first time I did not win,' Jennings told Variety. 'I think I left around 100k, so this was very exciting. I've never actually seen the confetti drop.'
What made the difference this time? 'I think what we've learned is that Matt Damon is worth 900,000 extra dollars when I play 'Millionaire,'' he said.
Of course, making the win extra sweet was how it played into the ongoing faux feud between Damon and host Jimmy Kimmel. 'Listen, Matt Damon has an I.Q. of, I think it's been measured in the 70s,' Kimmel quipped.
In all truthfulness, it was Kimmel who came up with the idea of pairing Jennings with Damon. According to Jennings, he ran into Kimmel at a cancer research fundraiser at UCLA. Kimmel, who was emceeing, 'pigeon holed me,' Jennings recalled. 'He said, 'Wouldn't it be funny if we could get a real A-lister on Millionaire, if you were the kind of the ringer.' And Jimmy Kimmel is a lovely guy. What I thought was, 'no, that would not be funny. That would be a ton of pressure on me, the ringer.' But because I love Jimmy, what I said was, 'yes, that would be funny, like we should do that.' I hoped he would forget, and he did not forget. And for some reason Matt Damon said yes!'
Jennings had never met Damon, but they hit it off backstage prior to the 'Millionaire' taping. 'Of course, I loved his work, and I always had the impression he's always very believable playing the smart guy in a movie,' he said. ''Good Will Hunting,' of course. But also 'Rounders,' 'The Martian,' even the Jason Bourne movies. You're like, 'this guy seems like just a normal guy who is secretly really smart,' and it turned out to be true.'
Promos for this season of 'Millionaire' played into Kimmel's decades-long late-night 'beef' with Damon, and Kimmel had fun skewering the star — including the long beard he was wearing because of his role in the film 'The Odyssey': 'Ken and what appears to be a yak are in the hot seat,' Kimmel said on the show. 'Now, where were you on January 6? What's going on with the beard? Are you waiting until the FBI reads your manifesto before you shave? I can't believe you keep getting hired to be in movies. It's really remarkable. Well, since this is for charity, I'm going to allow it begrudgingly.'
Later, Kimmel joked that he planed to storm 'Jeopardy' and play with someone that Jenning hates. ''ve never seen anybody pull anything like this before, where they would sneak onto a game show and just start playing,' Kimmel joked. 'How it happened, I don't know. Rules were definitely broken. Laws were probably broken and but you know what? You can't put anything past him. He's a sneaky little bastard.'
In the end, Kimmel came through with a crucial 'Ask the Host' lifeline. For the $500,000 question, the contestants were asked which star's first claim to fame was entering a Steve Martin look-alike contest. The answer was Bill Nye — and Kimmel knew it.
'I don't have the answers to the questions, but here's what I think: I know the answer to this one,' Kimmel told them. 'It's just one of these things where I just read a big story about this guy. I was on the radio in Seattle when this guy started out, he was on local television, and the answer, my final answer, is Bill Nye, the Science Guy.'
Jennings said that wound up being the hardest question for him and Damon. 'Neither of us had heard the fact about Bill Nye in a Steve Martin look alike contest, and that was the one where I thought we might just have to go out here because we've never heard this, and a lot of the answers look appealing and plausible,' he said. 'And boy, I've never been happier in my life to hear Jimmy Kimmel say, 'you guys, I actually know this one cold.' That's what you want to hear from a late night authority.'
From there, they cruised to the $1 million question. 'That stack of questions was on the easy side,' Jennings said. 'I think we just got lucky, because that's all carefully regulated and randomized. But we got very lucky that we had a stack that played to our strengths. It didn't really have any kind of wild card switcheroo, mean trick questions. And when I saw that last question pop up, I thought, 'I think I know this word. And then as soon as 'susurrus' popped up, that was such a relief. You're not aware of how much pressure there is on you until you think, 'Oh, I got away with one here again. I think we're gonna win the million!''
The one lifeline the duo didn't use was 'Phone a Friend,' but what viewers didn't see — as it was cut for time — is that they actually did. Imitating what very first 'Millionaire' winner John Carpenter did before answering his $1 million in November 1999, Jennings and Damon called their lifeline — 'Jeopardy!' champ Brad Rutter. But rather than ask for Rutter's advice, Jennings and Damon told him they were about to answer the $1 million question.
'We got to do the, 'Hey, Brad. We're gonna win a million dollars!' thing that that John Carpenter made famous,' Jennings said.
Jennings and Damon join just two other celebrities who have won 'Millionaire': Chef David Chang (with an assist from ESPN's Mina Kimes) and the team of Ike Bariholtz and his father Alan Barinholtz.
The new season of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' premiered last week, first with Drew Carey and Aisha Tyler paired in the hot seat. This week, after the Damon/Jenning win, 'The Daily Show's' Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng joined in. Other upcoming pairing include Joel McHale and Jim Rash; Tramell Tillman and Zach Cherry; Adam Devine and Anders Holm; and Helen Hunt and Dan Bucatinsky.
'I don't know how to quantify it exactly in print, but there's definitely some funny stuff,' Kimmel said of this season. 'There were some really hard questions that knocked some people out, who I expected to do well. And then there were a couple people who I did not expect to do well, who did very well… the fact that there are two of them and they have to make a decision is interesting, because there's no tie breaker. They do have to come to an agreement on what they're going to do, what their answer is, and what lifelines they're going to use. And sometimes that causes friction, and it's fun to be a part of.'
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