Call it a ratings stunt if you like: Fox TV's "Who Wants To Marry a Multimillionaire" delivered the goods! The show, in which supposed multimillionaire Rick Rockwell picked a bride from 50 eager contestants, jumped past hotties like Jennifer Lopez, The Simpsons and the Bible to land at #15 on this week's Lycos 50.
We say "supposed" because Rockwell has been in a heap of trouble since the show aired. First it was alleged he wasn't much of a millionaire, then someone dug up a restraining order filed against him by an old girlfriend. (Which should guarantee even more search hits next week.) The show was such a hottie that Rockwell himself got thousands of queries, as did his new bride, Darva Conger.
Meanwhile ABC's own get-rich-quick show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," drops out of the Lycos 50 this week after a four-week run. Such is the fickle nature of millionaire hype.
Other key points from this week's Lycos 50:
SEX SELLS (HISTORICAL EDITION): Sally Hemings, the slave who may have been the mistress of widowed president Thomas Jefferson, also makes our list at #49 this week. At first we thought her sudden popularity was due to the confluence of Black History Month and President's Day; but then we learned that CBS's "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal" was last week's top TV movie.
SEX SELLS (MODERN EDITION): Jessica Biel continues to make search hay out of her naked-as-a-jaybird turn in Gear magazine. The former girl-next-door moves up 12 places to the #17 spot (held last week, perhaps ironically, by prom dresses). Biel is also taking Gear along for the ride: the mag rises 14 spots to #22.
GOODBYE, MR. SCHULZ: The February 12 death of cartoonist Charles Schulz, one day before the final appearance of his comic strip "Peanuts," got plenty of interest. Schulz and his strip together are #18 this week -- a tribute to a great cartoonist. In a final Charlie Brown-ish touch, more searchers misspelled his name as "Schultz" than got it right.
HELLO, HARIETT: Black history heroine Harriet Tubman arrives at #47 this week, following last week's debut of Rosa Parks. With Martin Luther King, plus the Black History Month and Sally Hemings queries, 10% of this week's Lycos 50 is related to African American history.
LOVE STORY: Valentine's Day stays at #2 this week -- an impressive achievement, given that it happened early in the search week. But the real surprise is love poems moving up to #9 on our search list. Romantic poetry was incredibly popular last week. Who knew the Web was home to so many hopeless romantics?
POETRY PASSES: This seems like a good time to retire searches for plain poetry from the Lycos 50. We're convinced now that poetry is an ongoing general interest item like news or weather, rather than a particular seasonal hottie. As a result we'll move it onto our list of permanent powerhouse terms, which we don't rank. We'll continue to rank special poetry movers like love poems and holiday poems.
OSCAR NOMINATIONS: This year's Academy Award nominations were announced on February 15, pushing the Oscars into our top 20. However, none of the nominees got a big enough bump to make our list.
NEW THIS WEEK: Charles Schulz, the Oscars, NBA, Harriet Tubman, former wrassler Sable, Sally Hemings, band Blink 182, "Who Wants To Marry a Multimillionaire."
DROPOUTS: Hawaii, golf, "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire," movie Star Wars, late rapper Big Pun, poetry, free scholarships, the NFL.
BIGGEST RISE: Gear magazine, up 14 places.
BIGGEST DROP: Science fair projects, down 15.
AND FINALLY: Maybe it's coincidence... or could it be Valentine's Day? All we know is that queries for Viagra were up 80% last week vs. the same period a month ago.
