It has always been one of the Web's most popular television shows, but this week Buffy The Vampire Slayer (#9) reached a higher level by reaching a lower one: six feet under.
Buffy was the most-searched prime-time drama of 2000, but it had never appeared in the Lycos 50 until this week. The startling season finale drove Buffy searches up to triple what they were the week before. After all, The West Wing shocked viewers by killing off a minor character (Mrs. Landingham) but Buffy's creators did the unthinkable -- they killed off the show's lead character in the season's last episode.
Yes, in the last episode Buffy jumped from a tower in order to save her sister's life and the world as well. Buffy fans knew that the show was switching networks next season (from the WB to UPN) but how often does a show go on without its lead character? Television addicts are probably having horrifying nightmares of The Hogan Family and the ridiculous post-Redd Foxx sitcom The Sanford Arms.
Fans rushed to the Internet to commiserate over Buffy's death and share rumors about how the show would continue. A rumor even surfaced that the network change was an elaborate hoax and that the series is over with Buffy dead. Buffy fans can relax, however; creator Joss Whedon has come out and said that the show will be on UPN next year, with star Sarah Michelle Gellar on board. Now fans have all summer to wonder how she'll return to life.
Buffy wasn't the only cult television series to make the Lycos 50 this week. Star Trek moves up 21 places to #12, mostly due to interest in the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager. The twist-filled season finale of The X-Files (#50) also puts that show on the list.
THINGS BLOW UP: As expected, Pearl Harbor was America's top-grossing movie this week. It's current #5 ranking is the highest appearance by a movie since we began the Lycos 50 two years ago. The film didn't break the box office record for Memorial Day, however, because its long running time meant fewer showings and thus fewer tickets to sell.
VIRUS HOAX: The latest computer virus hoax to rile up the online world revolves around a little-known file on your hard drive called SULFNBK.EXE (#25). A widely-spread email contends that this file is actually a virus deposited on your computer which will "activate" on June 1 and wipe out your hard drive.
Actually, SULFNBK is not a virus at all, just a minor file that helps with the renaming of documents. This article tells you more. After June 1, when nothing happens to anyone, a lot of people are going to have to embarrassingly try to replace this file on their computers.
The SULFNBK hoax seems to have originated in Brazil, and many of the emails are in Portuguese. Searches for the virus began about five weeks ago and in the last two weeks have gone up an obscene 1410 percent.
THE BULL MOOSE: Lycos users showed surprisingly little interest in the newly-independent Vermont senator Jim Jeffords. We expected Jeffords to make the Lycos 50 but he fell far short with only one-third the searches needed to make the list. He was roughly as popular as Nicole Kidman or the Nintendo Gamecube.
On the other hand, Jeffords received a lot more attention than the week's other political story, the Bush tax cut. Four times as much attention, to be exact. Furthermore, the phrase Bush energy plan received 250 percent more searches than the phrase Bush tax cut. That may show where the public's priorities really are.
LONG GOODBYES: Say goodbye to two items that had each been on the Lycos 50 for over four months. NASA's slow week means it falls out after 25 weeks, but it will be back. William Shakespeare also begins his summer vacation and should return in the fall.
SHORT SUBJECTS: The controversy over Loft Story (#37) seems to have died down somewhat, but Big Brother Australia (#45) is back on the list? The latest Firestone tire recall receives only 10 percent as many searches as the first one did last August? As we warned last week, Allen Iverson (#46) becomes the first basketball player to make the Lycos 50. Now if we could only figure out why he wears a sock on his arm?
NEW THIS WEEK: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, SULFNBK virus, Memorial Day, Digimon, Big Brother Australia, Allen Iverson, NASCAR, The X-Files.
DROPOUTS: Mother's Day, mortgage rates, prom hairstyles (finally!), Shakespeare, The Mummy Returns, computer game Diablo II, Adolf Hitler, NASA.
BIGGEST RISE: Pearl Harbor, up 22 places to #5.
BIGGEST DROP: Loft Story, down 28 places to #9.
ONE YEAR AGO: Rapper Eminem peaks at #4. This week he's down to #44 and is in danger of soon falling off the list for the first time in over a year.
