Professor Tom Nichols' week of domination on Jeopardy came to an end on Friday night as the four-time returning champ lost by a mere $110.
Although Nichols does not qualify automatically for the Tournament of Champions, his four day total of $45,690 could make him eligible for a wild-card spot. He will be notified in the fall.
Nichols started sluggishly in Friday's match, going into negative territory with two incorrect questions in the category of Biology. He quickly bounced back to the positive side with a correct question in Music and regained his usual pace of aggressive clicking by the time he reached the Made By Ranco category.
Still, round one was not one of Nichols' better ones, sending him into Double Jeopardy in second place with $1,600.
Finding both Daily Doubles in the second round under the Statue of Liberty and Women categories helped Nichols make up for his low first round earnings.
The game remained close, with Nichols entering Final Jeopardy in second place with $5,600, trailing Bob Tzudicker by $600. The answer, in the category of Directors And Their Films, was "One of two films by Clint Eastwood that did not star Clint Eastwood."
Nichols, who bet $5,590, answered correctly with the question, "What is Bird." The other correct response was "Breezy," which none of the contestants got.
He ended the game with $11,190, but Tzudicker was able to give the same correct question as well, which cost Nichols his title.
Nichols plans to use the money primarily to finish paying his student loans.
Though he did not win, Nichols said at the start of Friday's show that he was happy with how he did. "I got further than I expected," he said.
