Aide still in "Jeopardy"

January 7, 2008 09:45 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Jillian Jorgensen, Globe Correspondent

"Is there no stopping Dan Pawson?" Alex Trebek, host of "Jeopardy!" asked in the middle of tonight's episode.

No one could stop the Allston resident, and he won his eighth game, adding $25,000 to his winnings and bringing his total cash prize to $151,301.

The big win followed a small one: on Friday, Pawson won just $200.

"That felt pretty good," Pawson said about tonight's win. "It felt like, ah, there we go."

Pawson, a 26-year-old legislative director for Republican state Senator Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, boosted his score significantly by winning two Daily Double questions in categories he had studied: Shakespeare and world capitals.

According to the Hall of Fame section on Jeopardy's Web site, Pawson's winnings have surpassed the fourth-highest total in the show's history, $149,200, won by Brian Weikle in 2003. Only two contestants have won more than $200,000 on the show, according to the Web site.

Pawson, a 2006 law school graduate, plans to spend the money paying off student loans and starting his family. His wife is expecting their first child this week. Though he had to use more vacation days than he planned while filming the show, Pawson said he can afford to take some unpaid days off to be with his family when the baby arrives, thanks to his prize money.

Though he could not reveal how long his streak would last, Pawson said that while he was competing, he never thought about exceeding Ken Jennings’ 74-day winning streak, the longest in "Jeopardy!" history.

"I never entertained any thoughts about going as far as Ken did," Pawson said. "I'm not insane, but I was ambitious."