Colby Burnett

Colby Burnett
Name:	Colby Burnett
Birth Hometown:	Chicago, IL
Occupation:	Former World History Teacher at Fenwick High School College Counselor
Known for:	Jeopardy! King of the Nerds

Colby Burnett is the first Jeopardy! contestant to have won both the Teachers Tournament and the ToC. He is the second ToC winner from another tournament in history, following College Tournament Winner Tom Cubbage who won the 1989 ToC. Burnett, who at the time was a teacher at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois.

Education

Burnett graduated from Fenwick High School. He then got his BA from Northwestern University, double majoring in History and Political Science. Then, he earned his MEd in Reading Teacher Education from Dominican University.

Early life

Burnett grew up in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. He credits his mother for keeping him out of trouble and enhancing his intellect by buying him an encyclopedia, which he read from cover to cover. After winning Jeopardy!, Burnett bought his mom a new home in a better area of Chicago. When asked what the greatest accomplishment of his life was, the Jeopardy! champion stated, "knowing a duke of Sealand."

Game Show

Jeopardy!

• He won the Teachers Tournament in November 2012. Later, in February 2013, Burnett won the show's Tournament of Champions, taking home the $250,000 grand prize. Governor Pat Quinn named December 18 "Colby Burnett Day" in Illinois. He is the 2nd ToC winner from other tournaments and the 6th in terms of finalists.
• In 2014, he appeared in the show's Battle of the Decades and reached the semifinals as a wildcard.
• In 2019, he teamed up with Pam Mueller and Alan Lin as representatives at the 2019 All-Star Games, finishing third behind Team Brad and Team Ken. In particular, the loss to Roger Craig in the BtoD was also insulting. In the last FJ, the game was decided by wagering according to Valjean's number in Les Miserables, but he showed a relaxed appearance until the end.

Other Shows

• In 2015, he appeared on the third season of TBS's reality game show King of the Nerds and reached 7th place.
• In 2016, he appeared as a challenger on ABC's 500 Questions on May 28, 2016. He was unable to eliminate S22 2-time champion William Lee, who defeated 3-time champ and 2006 ToC winner Michael Falk in regular games in the same season.

Jeopardy! Run

Game No.	Air Date	Final score	Cumulative Winnings	Notes
QF 1	November 7, 2012	$20,001	$20,001
SF 3	November 16, 2012	$14,701	$14,701
Final 1	November 19, 2012	$10,600	$10,600
Final 2	November 20, 2012	$18,671	$29,271

Common with other champions

Francois Barcomb

• Both won the Lock Game in the Teachers Tournament final.
• Both champions who competed between tournaments made it to the ToC. In Colby's case, Paul Nelson, who defeated 7-win champ Keith Whitener, won 5 in a row to advance to the ToC, and in Francois' case, Emma Boettcher defeated James Holzhauer, who had won 32, to advance to the ToC by winning 3 in a row.
• Both of them have defeated the seven-time champion in ToC. Francois in the Quarterfinal and Colby in the Semifinals.
• Both of them competed against two men in the preliminary round before reaching the ToC final, and one man and one woman in the semifinals.
• The opponents who made it to the ToC final had previously competed together.

Trivia

• As mentioned above, he is the second tournament winner to win the ToC in history, and it is the sixth record even if the scope is extended to the finalists. Later, S35 Teacher Tournament winner Francois Barcomb made it to the final at the next season's ToC, becoming the 7th all-time other Tournament winner to finish third.
• After Robin Carroll (S16), Michael Falk (S22), and Vijay Balse (S26), he is the fourth player in history to win the ToC season.
• Then at the ToC, Ben Ingram, who participated in the same season (S29), won, making it one of three cases to produce two ToC winners in one season.
• S32 ToC winner Alex Jacob is from the same hometown.