Final Jeopardy! Fenwick Teacher Builds Big Lead in Tournament of Champions

I love watching sports, especially when I have a rooting interest. I also enjoy following live chats about sports to get instant reaction.

So when I heard that Fenwick High School teacher Colby Burnett was advancing in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, I tuned in on Monday to see how he would do and took the approach I do to watching sports. 

Burnett, an AP World History teacher at Fenwick High School, won the show's Teacher's Tournament and $100,000 in prize money back in November, and he's rolling again in this tournament. The grand prize is $250,000. 

In the finals, Burnett is facing Kristin Morgan, a NASA strategic analyst from Alabama, and Keith Whitener, a research chemist from North Carolina.

Read more: Fenwick Teacher Talks About Jeopardy! Experience

Here's a running diary I kept while watching Burnett on the latest show: 

2:30 p.m. Colby is up first and chooses the Nelson Mandela category, but he misses the first question. He's a world history teacher, so I think he'll rebound in this category.

2:33 p.m. Now Colby is over to the Bible category and gets a few answers correct. He heads back to Mandela but Keith gets it. Colby seems to know the answers but is late on buzzing a couple of times. 

2:35 p.m. We hit the first break and Colby has $1,200, in second place. Alex Trebek introduces the contestants out of commercial. Keith is recently married and hoping for some honeymoon money. Kristin dumped her boyfriend after grad school but ended up with him anyway. And Colby, well he plays bass in a variety show band with students at Fenwick. 

"I will not dress up like Jack Black did (in School of Rock) ... but it'll go over amazingly." Who's the coolest contestant? Is that a question? 

2:39 p.m. Colby shows off his music prowess and gets Rihanna as the correct answer to a clue. Now he's back to the Nelson Mandela category and hits a couple. Suddenly he's on a roll, closing out the first round with $6,000 in first place. Keith isn't far behind, with $4,800. 

2:42 p.m. We're back from commercial and Alex Trebek says they need to deduct $2,000 from Colby because he gave South African Frederik Willem de Klerk a German-sounding middle name, pronouncing it Villem. Suddenly he's back in second place. Whatever, Trebek. 

2:45 p.m. It's Double Jeopardy time, and "Binders Full of Women" is a category. It's actually about powerful, intelligent women, and not Mitt Romney gaffes, though. 

2:47 p.m. Keith keeps threatening comebacks by hitting every Daily Double, but he gets this one wrong and is down to $3,000. 

2:49 p.m. Remember how Colby plays bass and likes music? Well, he's about to tear through the '90s music category, getting Dave Matthews Band, Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" and Janet Jackson. Now he's just messing around and getting a triple double, so to speak. Trailblazers. George McGovern. Sesquicentennial. Algernon. Cheese. 

"There's a colby cheese, too," Trebek says. "Oh I never heard that before, Alex!" Colby replies. Then, he picks from the next category, though just says, "Funny," which could have also been a shot at Trebek's sense of humor. (The full category name was "Funny Things People Say.")

2:51 p.m. It's Final Jeopardy time, and Colby has today locked up. The category is American Authors, and he's the only person to correctly answer Edna Ferber. He ends the day at $22,200, building a nice cushion for Tuesday's action. Keith has $4,800 and Kristin fell all the way to just $400. 

Jeopardy! is back at 2:30 p.m. (CT) on ABC/Channel 7. Tune in to see if Colby can win the $250,000, or check back to Patch for details. 

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