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Mina Kimes is one of ESPN’s top NFL analysts and has been for many years. The Yale graduate is also evidently an ace Jeopardy! player, as she earned $1,000,000 for charity by winning a recent edition of Celebrity Jeopardy!.
Kimes — an NFL analyst and senior writer for ESPN who graduated summa cum laude from Yale with a degree in English — won the finale of Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars on Friday night on ABC.
Mina Kimes earned $1 million for a homeless charity in Los Angeles by winning Celebrity Jeopardy!
The massive Seattle Seahawks fan beat out Ike Barinholtz and Steven Weber to claim the $1 million top prize for her chosen charity, the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition.
Going into “Final Jeopardy!”, Kimes led with $12,500, followed by Weber at $10,500 and Barinholtz at $5,100. The game-clinching clue, in the category “Name’s the Same,” asked contestants to identify an 1873 Mark Twain novel, a period of U.S. history, and an HBO drama that debuted in 2022.
While both Kimes and Barinholtz got the answer — “The Gilded Age” — correct, Barinholtz was unable overcome Kimes’ lead.
Kimes gifted her $1 million prize to Los Angeles’ SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition. Additionally, Barinholtz won $200,000 for the Noonan Syndrome Foundation and Weber won $200,000 for New Directions for Veterans.
“This was one of the best moments of my life—topped minutes later when I got to call the folks at SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition to let them know that Jeopardy was giving them $1 million,” Kimes wrote on Instagram.
“Everyone in LA knows we need to find a better way to address homelessness, but SELAH does the work: Getting our neighbors access to food, hygiene, and transportation; helping them apply for housing and navigate the legal system; treating all with dignity and respect. I am so honored to have played for them, and so grateful to the folks at Celebrity Jeopardy! for letting me do it.”
During her stint on Celebrity Jeopardy!, Kimes also went viral for beating out fellow contestants Katie Nolan and Lisa Ann Walter by using shrewd mathematical calculations — as she was able to win the round despite getting the answer to “Final Jeopardy!” wrong.
Some folks have asked me to explain my wagering strategy in Celebrity Jeopardy so here it is…how I won despite being wrong 😭 pic.twitter.com/gQ0j3CW8sJ
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) May 13, 2026