It was fun while it lasted for Prince George's Matthew Church, but his run on Jeopardy! ended Wednesday night.
After three appearances on the television game show, Church was dethroned after missing the Final Jeopardy question, unable to come up Charlotte's Web as the the correct response in a category about children's literature.
"If I had another 30 seconds I probably could have got it," said Church, who was in second place heading into the final round. His two competitors also missed the question, but the contender in third place risked the least amount of money.
"I know I'll probably get some interesting reaction when I go into the Prince George Public Library and see my all my colleagues there from my time on the board," Church said. "Someone on Twitter suggested that I'll get about a dozen copies of E.B. White's famous book for Christmas."
Earning another $2,000 for coming in second Wednesday night, Church's three-day total was $31,000.
The entire game was close between the three contestants, all of whom appeared to be around the same age, including another graduate student.
Church picked up a narrow lead at the end of the first round, but lost it early in Double Jeopardy after dropping a $2,000 question by mispronouncing the word 'admiralty'.
"It's been an adventure, the last few days," Church said. "I hope I've given people a nice lead-in to Christmas at home with their families with a real success story coming out of Prince George."
Church said he was even stopped about four or five times while out by people wanting to take a picture with him. "That's been a strange experience. I'm sure that will peter off in the next day or two."
Jeopardy! contestants have the incentive to keep quiet about the outcome of their games by not receiving their winnings until after the show has aired. Church said he's expecting a cheque in about three months.
As a Canadian citizen, he'll get to keep relatively more of his winnings than his American counterparts, who are subject to heavier tax laws.
While he doesn't have any immediate plans for the money, Church said he's thinking of putting it towards his tuition in the interim.
"I definitely will be making a donation of some kind to a couple of the charities I really like to support around town, including the Prince George Public Library," he said. "I have been contemplating a trip to Laos now after Monday night."
But more than any cash prize, Church said the best takeaway from the entire experience is the amount of support he's received.
"The main thing I want to say is how thankful I am for the whole city of Prince George and everyone else in my life getting behind me so much for a really fun experience," he said. "And that's the main thing this was - the chance to do something I'm good at, at probably the highest possible level and do well at it and have so many people behind me. That means the world to me."
