Ike Barinholtz makes history winning ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ after dominating ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’
Ike Barinholtz is the king of celebrity game shows.
After winning “Celebrity Jeopardy” last year and then advancing to “Tournament of Champions,” the “Mindy Project” star, 47, made history on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Tuesday night.
Ike and his dad, Alan, who appeared in the mockumentary comedy “Jury Duty” last year, became the first pair to win the $1,000,000 grand prize on the revamped celebrity version of the long-running game show.
The father-son duo took home the million dollars for their choice of charity, ASL Program at Los Encinos School.
During the episode, the Barinholtzs correctly answered questions about raccoons, “Tangled,” Renaissance art, sleep apnea and more to reach the final two questions.
For the first time, they used one of their lifelines on Question 14, which asked where explorer Ferdinand Magellan died.
They narrowed down the options with their 50/50 lifeline and then used their phone a friend lifeline to confirm the Philippines as the right answer.
The 15th and final question was: “Not including blanks or bonus spaces, the highest-valued three-letter Scrabble word is ‘zax,’ which is a what?”
Stumped on the answer, Ike and Alan decided to use the Ask the Host lifeline to get Jimmy Kimmel’s input.
“I’m gonna tell you somethin’ that’s gonna blow your mind,” Kimmel, 56, told Ike and his dad. “You may have won ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’ but I won a big celebrity Scrabble tournament here in LA.”
Kimmel surmised that the answer was option D: “Tool for cutting roofing slates.”
Ike and Alan took Kimmel’s advice and guessed D — and they were right!
Confetti fell on the pair as they jumped up and celebrated their huge victory.
Kimmel then presented Ike and Alan with their massive $1 million check for the ASL Program.
This is the third season of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” featuring celebrity contestants. It’s timed to the 25th anniversary of the iconic game show, which was originally hosted by the late Regis Philbin.
Some of the other pairs who have competed on this season include John Mulaney and Nick Kroll, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, Rosie O’Donnell and Lisa Ann Walter, and John Stamos and Dave Coulier.
Last year, Ike beat Wil Wheaton and Patton Oswalt to win over $1 million for charity in the “Celebrity Jeopardy” tournament.
He advanced to the “Tournament of Champions” in March, becoming the first “ToC” contestant to originate on “Celebrity Jeopardy.”
He came in third place during the semifinals round.
