History was made this weekend when chef David Chang won $1 million for his charity on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, becoming the first celebrity in the show’s history to successfully answer the million-dollar question correctly.
Helping him to do so was ESPN analyst Mina Kimes, who went to Yale and was a business and economics journalist before moving into the world of sports where she’s now one of the top NFL analysts at ESPN. As such, she knows many things about many subjects and was Chang’s choice as his Phone A Friend lifeline. On that final question, which asked which president was the first with electricity in the White House, Chang dialed up Mina who said Benjamin Harrison seemed right before time cut off.
On Tuesday, Kimes joined Pablo Torre on the ESPN Daily podcast to discuss her role in the Millionaire moment, and explained that she somewhat accidentally gave Chang the right answer, because she would’ve kept talking about the other options and said she wasn’t sure had time not cut off and caused her to get hung up on.
P.S. I made @minakimes break down the wildest heat-check in Asian-American game show history, the call from @JimmyKimmel, and what the best part of helping @davidchang win @MillionaireTV really is (well, outside of the whole charity thing).#ESPNDaily: https://t.co/UBi1Ypb2xM pic.twitter.com/OFNKNpnlsT
— ‘Miserable’ Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) December 1, 2020
Kimes, of course, is being a bit modest when she says it was “bananas” for Chang to listen to her on that question, but it worked out well, which she’s very thankful for, because she wouldn’t have been able to look him in the eyes had she gotten it wrong. Now, she’s helped him make history and make $1 million to help hospitality workers who have been so incredibly hurt by the pandemic, and as Torre says at the end, she’s probably earned some free food from Chang’s restaurants.
