Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Finally Has First Celebrity Win $1 Million Prize

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has finally awarded its $1 million prize to a celebrity player: renowned chef David Chang. Chang was featured on the Sunday, November 29th episode of Millionaire, where he took viewers down to the wire with a high-stakes Q&A round. Chang’s big million-dollar question was about the history of both technology and the US presidency – one that the all-star chef and restauranteur was ill-equipped to answer. Luckily, as a celebrity chef, Chang has some friends in smart places, and one of them threw him a lifeline that turned out to be worth $1 million in a charitable donation.

The million-dollar question for David Chang was: “Although he and his wife never touched a light switch for fear of being shocked, who was the first president to have electricity in the White House?”

Four possible responses were given:

• Ulysses S. Grant
• Benjamin Harrison
• Chester A. Arthur
• Andrew Johnson

So, in a year where talk of the presidency and presidential legacy has been on everyone’s lips – how many would be able to answer the question above? Not David Chang, who openly admitted that “I didn’t do well enough in school and I was a terrible student — that’s why I became a chef.”

Chang used Who Wants To Be A Millionaire‘s lifeline option to reach out to his friend, journalist/NFL Live analyst Mina Kimes for the answer. She went with Benjamin Harrison – which is indeed the right answer – but Millionaire host Jimmy Kimmel made David Chang feel the intense pressure on the road to victory. Chang was facing huge stakes of seeing his $500,000 earnings drop to $32K for a wrong answer. Kimmel was also all-too-happy to remind Chang that “in the 20 years that this show has been on ever won the million dollars.”

Chang stuck to his guns, rationalizing that Kimes is “she’s so much smarter than I am, though.” He was rewarded with the big million-dollar win, with the proceeds going to Southern Smoke Foundation, which is currently working to provide aid to the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the big final round was a nail-biter, it was actually a lot closer than people may have thought. As an epilogue, Kimmel called Mina Kimes back, and the poor reporter was about ready to faint with anxiety. She didn’t think Chang would listen to her pick – and she almost told him to go with Grover Cleveland – a choice that wasn’t even on the list! Talk about luck. Kimes’ big takeaway? Bragging rights to her parents: “Finally, my college education is justified!”