How 'Millionaire' host Jimmy Kimmel helped Team Barinholtz win stunning top prize

It had all the drama of a nail-biting Super Bowl, appropriately topped with a confetti-filled victory celebration.

The family duo of Alan Barinholtz (who played the fake judge in Amazon's 2023 reality prank TV hit "Jury Duty") and comedic actor son Ike Barinholtz hit peak "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" by answering each of the 15 questions correctly to win the $1 million prize for charity. It marked the first $1 million win in this 25th anniversary season, which features celebrity-paired contestants.

"Mindy Project" star Ike, 47, who has three daughters, tried to convey the emotional magnitude of the familial feat.

"Had there been confetti in the hospital room, I would have given the birth of my children as the hard No. 1 significant event in my life," Ike tells USA TODAY. "But with the confetti, this just felt bigger than anything I had ever been a part of."

That's comedic exaggeration, of course.

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Alan Barinholtz says he studied ABC's original 'Millionaire' weeks ahead of appearance

But the "Millionaire" victory was sublime, made sweeter with a dash of Redemption Tour.

Ike says he "choked" answering the $250,000 question in 2020, ending a solo appearance on the previous season of the primetime celebrity "Millionaire" (Wednesdays, 8 EDT/PDT) with host Jimmy Kimmel.

"I was Ike's Lifeline on that episode. So I semi-blew it too, and I wanted to redeem myself," says Alan. "But I still thought if we could crack $125,000 this time, that would still be golden."

The veteran lawyer Alan studied, sharpening his skills by watching hours of ABC's original "Millionaire" with host Regis Philbin on YouTube weeks before the appearance. It paid off as the duo breezed through the opening questions. Ike even immediately knew the $250,000 question, correctly naming Dan Aykroyd as the movie star who randomly appeared in the music-star-filled video for the 1985 charity single "We Are the World."

"I just remember as a kid watching 'We Are the World' and being like, 'Why is Ray Stantz from 'Ghostbusters' there? I didn't understand," says Ike.

What the heck is a 'zax'? Scrabble word proves challenging

With progressively more challenging questions, the biggest test came in the doozy of the final $1 million offering: "The highest value three-letter Scrabble word is 'zax.' Which is what?"

The duo used their Ask the Audience Lifeline and were still tortured with uncertainty. But using their final Lifeline, Ask the Host, Kimmel revealed himself to be a Scrabble buff who had recently used "zax" in a game.

He urged them to pick "D," a tool for cutting roof slates. Kimmel said he felt "very strongly" that was the correct answer. Ike wasn't so sure.

"There is a world where Jimmy was just wrong and would have been like 'I'm so sorry' afterward," says Ike. "And another thought swimming around my head then is that Jimmy has a long history of pranking me. It would have been crazy, but to me there was a 5% chance that Jimmy was messing with me about Scrabble knowledge."

Kimmel was not pranking and not wrong. After a forever pause (13 seconds!) to build more TV tension, the show computer revealed the answer was indeed "D," and the Barinholtzes were triumphant. The mild-mannered Alan unleashed a victory cry and held his head like it might explode as the confetti fell.

The $1 million prize will be donated to The American Sign Language program at Los Encinos School, which the son of "American Auto" actor Jon Barinholtz, Ike's brother, attends.

Ike, who often plays loveable, dimwitted characters, has proven he rolls with genius in real life. He won "Celebrity Jeopardy!" in February 2023 while placing as a semifinalist — and the only celebrity player — in the 2024 "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions.

"The way 'Millionaire' builds to harder questions, the tension you're feeling from questions 12 through 15 is greater than any pressure you're feeling on 'Jeopardy!' " says Ike. "And you have Jimmy, the 'Millionaire' host, smirking at you a little bit. You just don't want to go home."

That Kimmel smirk was replaced by tears of joy in the victory celebration.

"Afterwards, Jummy gave me a huge hug and even he was getting emotional," says Ike. "It was all just so wonderful. And again, there was confetti. Confetti is just a game-changer."