'Nashville' star faces $1 million question

Ann Oldenburg | USA TODAY

Charles Esten — you may know him as Deacon Claybourne on ABC's Nashville — is going to make Millionaire history this week.

The actor will appear as a contestant on Who Wants to Be a MIllionaire with new host Cedric The Entertainer on Wednesday and Thursday (check millionaireTV.com for times). He's playing to see how much he can win for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And the syndicated show tells us he's going to be the first celebrity player ever to make it all the way to the $1 million question on the daytime version of the game show.

What we don't know is if he opts to answer the question and wins it all. Gotta tune in for that.

Making it all especially meaningful is the fact that Esten's daughter, Addie, 13, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2. "It was a dark and scary day when we found out that our Addie had leukemia," says Esten in a release. But she is thriving today, he says.

"The first ray of light was the reassurance from our doctor that there was hope — there were medicines and procedures that could help our little girl. All that hope, and all that help, came from research ... research made possible with funds raised by LLS and other organizations."