‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ Ends Summer Run With Consecutive Weeks of Ratings Growth

ABC recently decided to move some of this summer’s run of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” into the fall — and perhaps it doesn’t hurt that it’s doing very well so far this season. “Millionaire,” hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, has now been the No. 1 primetime entertainment program with viewers for the third week in a row, growing every week since its season premiere on July 22. The show’s most recent episode, on Aug. 12, averaged 4.41 million viewers (up 2% from the previous week’s 4.33 million) according to Nielsen’s National Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings. That repped the show’s best performance since last year’s July 30, 2025 episode where Matt Damon and Ken Jennings won $1 million. (That was the most-watched episode of “Millionaire” in five years — since 6.52 million on June 4, 2020 — during the first season that Kimmel took over as host.) Popular on Variety It was also the most-watched show of the night, beating CBS’ “Big Brother” by 28% in total viewers, and also the week’s most-watched primetime entertainment program, beating NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” by 19%. Last week’s episode featured guest players Jesse Eisenberg and Paul Giamatti, and then Krysten Ritter and Sarah Shahi. Originally slated to run through the summer, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” will take a breather after this Wednesday night’s episode, which includes comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel as a team, followed by actress and rapper Awkwafina and director Paul Feig. The show will then take a hiatus, and return with the season’s final three episodes on three consecutive Wednesdays: Oct. 7, 14 and 21. (“Celebrity Jeopardy,” which was originally scheduled for the time slot, will air at a later date.) Among the highlights so far this season, Ben Affleck and “Jeopardy!” champion Jamie Ding won the top prize for charity. Besides Affleck/Ding, Eisenberg/Giamatti, Ritter/Shahi, Scheer/Huebel and Awkwafina/Feig, guests in the hot seat this season have included Larry David & Cazzie David, Jason Alexander & Wayne Knight, Tig Notaro & Pete Holmes, Brad Paisley & Clayton Kershaw, and Michael Kosta & Wendi McLendon-Covey. Still to come are Will Forte & Taran Killam, Colin Jost & Michael Che, Michael Keaton & Jon Lovett, Timothy Simons & Jackie Tohn, Billy Porter & Leslie Odom Jr., and Sarah Jane Nader & Brooks Nader. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” from Sony Pictures Television’s Embassy Row and Kimmelot, is executive produced by Michael Davies and Jimmy Kimmel. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television’s Embassy Row and Kimmelot.