'Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek (right), joins Iowa City native Paul Nelson in the winners circle on the television game show. Nelson's two-day earnings total $29,200. (Jeopardy Productions Inc. photo)

Update:

Third time is still a charm for Iowa City native Paul Nelson, as his “Jeopardy!” winnings climbed to $45,400 Tuesday morning (11/6/12).

He’ll have a two-week break while the popular answer-and-question game show goes into its Teachers’ Tournament. After that, Nelson, 23, a legislative correspondent in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Washington office, will be back to defend his crown.

He jumped to a huge lead Tuesday, racking up $4,800 by the first commercial break. He amassed $7,400 by the end of the first round and took $18,100 into Final Jeopardy.

It seemed like a given that he’d clean up in the Final round, with the category Cabinet Departments. He tripped, however, on which department launched a Spanish-language television campaign. He guessed the Department of Commerce, but the answer was the Department of Homeland Security.

No worries, with a conservative wager, his total fell to $16,200 — enough to remain Jeopardy champion.

Post from Nov. 5

Iowa City native Paul Nelson did it again.

He defended his “Jeopardy!” crown in an episode that aired at 11:30 a.m. Monday (11/5/12) in Eastern Iowa. With a $15,200 win, his two-day total jumped to $29,200.

Nelson, 23, a legislative correspondent in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Washington, D.C., office, again knew most of the questions to political answers in the long-running game show where contestants supply their replies in question form.

He was in the lead with $18,600 going into the Final Jeopardy category:  Broadway Musicals. With a conservative wager, he managed to pull out a $15,200 win even though he erred by writing down “Les Miserables” instead of “Chicago” for the longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

His formidable opponents were law school student Shari Dwoskin of Montreal and retired paralegal Bobbi Hiltibidal of Topeka, Kan.

To see how Nelson fares on Election Day, tune in to “Jeopardy!” at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday (11/6) on KWWL Channel 7.

Original post from Nov. 2:

Iowa City native Paul Nelson, 23, a legislative correspondent in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Washington, D.C., office, became the new “Jeopardy!” champion Friday (11/2/12), with a wave to his parents, Scott and Tracy Nelson of Iowa City.

Clueless on the Final Jeopardy category, he wagered nothing and wrote “thanks Mom and Dad” for his answer, preserving his $14,000 earnings. He snatched the crown from previous “Jeopardy!” champ Keith Whitener of Charlotte, N.C., who until Friday, had amassed $147,597 in winnings — plus another $1,000 for his third-place finish that day.

In a weird twist, second-place finisher Ariane Helous of Santa Cruz, Calif., also wagered nothing, but did know the answer in the final category: College Football Team Nicknames. The answer: The team known as these since 1895, plays its home games on top of Hayward Seismic Fault. The question: Who are the California Golden Bears. (Just happened to be Helous’ alma mater.) Whitener guessed Trojans, wagered $11,700 and plunged into third place.

Nelson jumped to an early lead, grabbing a Daily Double win with a $5,000 wager in the science category. Correct question: What is chlorophyll? That brought his earnings up to $16,400. He lead through the final stretch, missed an answer or two, then Whitener passed him by $2,300 with a correct Daily Double question, before losing in the end.

Nelson was practically unstoppable on history and political categories. That’s a natural for the homeschooled student who majored in political science at Wheaton College in Illinois and graduated summa cum laude in 2011.

Sounds like he has a lot for which to thank Mom and Dad.

Tune in Monday, Nov. 5, to see how he fares against two new competitors. “Jeopardy!” airs at 11:30 a.m. on KWWL Channel 7.