A week of turnover on the Lycos 50 is highlighted by the highest-ever performance by the NFL (#2).

A number of factors contribute to the popularity of the NFL, clearly the most popular sports league online. The Super Bowl is three weeks away but almost makes the Lycos 50 on its own at #54. Fans of non-playoff teams searching for the NFL Draft give that April event as many searches as Angelina Jolie or the popular metal band Slipknot.

Another major sports story this week is the first-ever appearance on the Lycos 50 for Michael Jordan (#12). It's rare for Anna Kournikova (#25) not to stand as the most-popular athlete online, but the interest in Jordan's divorce from wife Juanita finally places His Airness on the Lycos 50. Searches for Michael outnumbered searches for Juanita 10-to-1.

We always expected Jordan's comeback to make the list, but September 11 blotted it out from the public mindset. With recent news reverting to the more tabloid and mundane, Michael can now spell his popularity D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Tammy Wynette would be proud.

BACK TO SCHOOL: After September 11, we noticed that searches for non-historical academic subjects waned. But that trend has turned around as students return to school for the spring semester.

After not appearing on the Lycos 50 in the fall of 2001, both science fair projects (#30) and Shakespeare (#49) return to the list this week. Greek mythology (#47) also reappears, which is not as newsworthy since it had made the list after September 11.

World War II (#46) and the January regular Martin Luther King, Jr. (#15) complete the academic search quintet.

SURVIVOR SERIOUS: Speaking of pre-September 11 search trends, Survivor finally returns to the Lycos 50 this week at #16. On one hand, that's a much lower ranking than the finale of Survivor 2, which stood at #3 back in May. On the other hand, a number of searches for Survivor 4 (more than Temptation Island 2) demonstrate that this jalopy hasn't quite run out of gas yet.

WE LOVE DAVE: The death of Wendy's owner Dave Thomas (#18) garners as much search traffic as the death of Beatle George Harrison. Searches for Wendy's itself are up to 20 times normal.

Coincidentally, tomorrow the Lycos 50 looks at the top fast food searches in 2001 as part of our five-part series on food searches.

TAIWAN ON: The Internet sex scandal has gone international with the arrival on the Lycos 50 of Taiwanese politician (and ex-newswoman) Chu Mei-Feng (#45). A secretly shot tape of Mei-Feng in a sexual encounter with a married Taiwan businessman has turned up for sale around Southeast Asia.

Although the scandal broke a couple of weeks ago in Asia, searches for Mei-Feng on Lycos doubled this week. What's astonishing here is that Mei-Feng is completely unknown in America, but searches by international Lycos users are enough to put the scandal on the U.S. Lycos 50. Feng actually gets more searches than the other current alleged sex tape star, Christina Aguilera (#60).

LYCOS USERS SHOW CLASS: Despite non-stop advertising, the new torture/quiz show The Chair gets as many searches as Spinal Tap and "Puff the Magic Dragon" -- or a measly one percent as many as Osama bin Laden (#28). Competitor The Chamber doesn't even make the top 100,000 queries of the week.

SHORT SUBJECTS: This year love poems (#39) show up on the Lycos 50 before the holiday that puts them there, Valentine's Day (#55)... Last year diets stayed on the Lycos 50 for four weeks after New Year's, but this year they fell off after one week... Yes, prom dresses are already at #23, and it is only January... The American Music Awards are less popular each year, dropping from #8 in 2000 to #21 last year, and now only #31 this year.

NEW THIS WEEK: Michael Jordan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Survivor, Dave Thomas, prom dresses, science fair projects, American Music Awards, Detroit Auto Show, love poems, NBA, Chu-Mei Feng, World War II, Greek mythology, William Shakespeare.

DROPOUTS: Christmas (after 16 weeks), Martha Stewart, college football, digital cameras, computer games Diablo II and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, video game Metal Gear Solid 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Publishers Clearing House, New Year, diets, Powerball, Elijah Wood, Halle Berry.

ONE YEAR AGO: IT-mania swept the Web as the unknown invention hit #4 on the Lycos 50. One year later, IT/Ginger (now revealed as the Segway personal scooter) gets fewer searches than Survivor winner Ethan Zohn.