Government Professor Tom Nichols won $11,990 on Jeopardy! yesterday, qualifying him for the show's "Tournament of Champions" and a chance at its $100,000 prize.
Nichols' triumph last night, in which he came back from second place going into the Final Jeopardy round, brought his total winnings to $57,680.
Last night marked Nichols' sixth appearance on the game show. Nichols was last seen on Jeopardy in February but was invited to return because he was mistakenly penalized for a correct response during the fifth game.
Nichols dominated early play in the first round, correctly responding to four of the five answers in the category British Potpourri. He stumbled with the category's last answer, losing $1,500 for an incorrect response to a Daily Double.
Nichols also provided at least one correct response in each of the other first round categories -- 1946, Australian Cinema, Cars, Venezuela and Food & Drink. He ended the first round in first place with $3,100.
During the break, host Alex Trebek asked Nichols how his students at Dartmouth respond to his appearances on Jeopardy.
"If a student is stuck on a question, the other students in the classroom invariably start humming the final Jeopardy theme," Nichols said. He also said that students often ask him if their answers on his exams "should be written in the form of a question."
Nichols' domination in the first round began to wane slightly in the Double Jeopardy round of play. Nichols incorrectly responded to a daily double in the Geography category. But he did provide correct responses in the other categories -- Civil War, "Blues and Grays," and Music & Dance.
He ended the round in second place with $6,000 after losing $1,000 on the last answer in the Music & Dance category.
But Nichols was the only contestant to correctly respond to the Final Jeopardy answer in the category Familiar Phrases with the question, "What is ignorance of the law?" The final answer was, "Jefferson said it 'is no excuse in any country. . . because it can always be pretended.'"
He wagered $5,990.
Nichols, who is out of town filming the Tournament of Champions -- in which all five-day winners on the show compete for a grand prize of $100,000 -- could not be reached for comment.
