Monday night's Jeopardy! TV game show had Harvard College students cheering on one of their own.

The show's semi-final round featured freshman Brian Chan, one of three final contestants in College Jeopardy!, an annual showdown between college students.

Chan ousted his opponents in the quarter-finals last Thursday and started Monday's match with the lead earnings, competing against students from Duke and Michigan State universities.

Chan held his own in a buzzer-to-buzzer race against the MSU student, but he missed a double Jeopardy! question that was worth $1,000.

"It was something I knew, but my brain just froze," Chan said.

It brought him to a tie with the MSU opponent and one last chance to pull ahead.

But Chan was knocked out of the competition when the MSU student gave the final answer, "What is the Articles of Confederation?"

Competing on Jeopardy! fulfilled a childhood dream for the Chicago area native, who has watched the show since he was very young. In high school, Chan competed in a statewide series of trivia tournaments.

"I watched Jeopardy! as a kid and I've wanted to try out for a long time," he said. "It was a blast meeting the other students and [host] Alex Trebek."

Chan, a history concentrator who lives in Canaday Hall, took the test last fall and was one of 15 students flown to Los Angeles for the taping of College Jeopardy! in late February. The show's results were a closely guarded secret until the broadcast on Monday night.

Chan said that he didn't spend a lot of time getting ready for the competition.

"I didn't prepare at all and figured the questions are randomly selected, so studying for it didn't really matter," he said. "But I did play the Jeopardy! computer game against my friends."