Ike Barinholtz and his dad become first pair to win $1 million prize on revamped “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”

The “Blockers” star and his father, who appeared on “Jury Duty,” became the first celebrity winners of the show since 2020.

Ike Barinholtz has conquered another iconic game show.

After winning Celebrity Jeopardy last year, the Blockers star emerged victorious on the revamped celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Tuesday night. Barinholtz won a full million dollars for his selected charity, the ASL Program at Los Encinos School, and competed alongside his father Alan, who recently appeared on Jury Duty.

“Everywhere he goes, people stop him, and it’s a strange dynamic, but one that we’re very proud of. I’m so proud of you!” Ike said, laughing.

The Barinholtzes breezed through the first several questions, easily identifying correct answers about Florida, raccoons, and federal holidays. On a question about Tangled, Alan confessed, “For the record, we both wept at his house when we watched Coco, and we were made fun of by the rest of the family.” Ike confirmed the anecdote: “My mom and one of the other kids were like, ‘You guys are babies.’”

Host Jimmy Kimmel insisted that the jeering Barinholtzes were wrong. “You’re not babies,” he said. “Babies wouldn’t be able to play this game. Babies would be terrible at this game.”

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The duo went on to successfully answer questions about Renaissance art, sleep apnea, and presidential portraits without any lifelines. During the 13th question out of 15, Ike confidently locked in an answer about a member of an ’80s supergroup who accidentally showed up to the studio during a seminal recording.

“I’ve watched ‘We Are the World’ many times, and I would always say, ‘Why is Dan Aykroyd there?’” Kimmel was flummoxed by the information: “I’ve interrogated so many people from Lionel Richie to Huey Lewis on every little detail of what happened that night, and I did not know that the reason Dan Aykroyd was in the chorus was because he showed up at the wrong address,” he said. “This is shocking news to me.”

Question 14, which asked where explorer Ferdinand Magellan died, presented a substantial challenge. The Barinhotlzes used their 50/50 lifeline to narrow the options down to the Philippines and Norway, then phoned a friend to confirm their hunch that the Philippines is the likelier option. They were ultimately proven right, and advanced to the final question.

Related: Reunited Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell hilariously struggle with very first question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

The last round of the episode asked, “Not including blanks or bonus spaces, the highest-valued three-letter Scrabble word is ‘zax,’ which is a what?” The possible answers were: “Rare species of African antelope,” “Ceramic container for holy water,” “Letter in the arabic alphabet,” and “Tool for cutting roofing slates.” The Barinholtzes first asked the audience for their input, and 51% of in-studio spectators chose the antelope — but both players suspected that the answer was the tool, and they used the new lifeline, Ask the Host, to weigh Kimmel’s thoughts.

Kimmel had some insight that helped shape the duo’s decision. “I’m gonna tell you somethin’ that’s gonna blow your mind,” he said. “You may have won Celebrity Jeopardy, but I won a big celebrity Scrabble tournament here in L.A. Now just to be clear, I don’t have the answers, but here’s what I think: I think the answer’s D.” When asked to explain his reasoning, Kimmel said, “Because it’s such a big word. I’ve used it before, and I’ve had people curse at me for using it. And we’ve looked it up — I feel pretty strongly that the answer is D. I smoked everybody in this tournament.”

Related: Jimmy Kimmel talks hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and taping his show from home

The duo strongly considered tapping out without answering the last question, which would have let them keep $500,000 in winnings. “It’s a lot of dough,” Alan said. “The fact that Mr. Kimmel has used this word and presumably knows the word because people had asked him, ‘What kind of word is that?’ — knowing that he is inquisitive and knowledgeable would lead me to believe that he, at one time, looked it up. And he’s not as old as I am, so he wouldn’t forget what it was. And under normal circumstances, I would say a half a million dollars compared to $32k — don’t screw around. And if you’re comfortable with Jimmy, no pressure, then I’m comfortable with Jimmy.”

Ike ultimately opted to answer according to the trio’s hunch, and was rewarded with confetti, a giant check, and a million dollars to the ASL program.

Related: Ike Barinholtz to become first Celebrity Jeopardy winner to compete in Tournament of Champions

Ike Barinholtz previously vanquished Wil Wheaton and Patton Oswalt to win over $1,000,000 for charity in the Celebrity Jeopardy tournament in 2023, and later advanced to the semifinals in Jeopardy: Tournament of Champions earlier this year.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was revived with Kimmel as the host and celebrities as the contestants in 2020, and shot nine episodes with no audience during the pandemic. The second season of the revival premiered later in 2020, and celebrity chef David Chang became the first (and, until the Barinholtzes, only) celebrity winner of the million-dollar prize.

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