This week saw a lot of financial jitters, balanced by a good deal of levity courtesy of summer's favorite pastime, reality television.

While Big Brother falls three spots to #10 on this week's list, the show has developed its most popular cast member yet: Tonya Paoni. The blonde bombshell isn't just popular on CBS -- she's been showing off her surgically-augmented assets on the show's 24-hour feeds, where the current cast has been featuring a little more nudity than usual.

Confusing things is the fact that Paoni was kicked out of the house by her fellow castmates. It remains to be seen if the removal of the show's biggest breakout star will hurt BB3, and whether Paoni can attain celebrity status higher than past Big Brother contestants like Chicken George, despite ending her run on the show early.

Speaking of blonde bombshells and reality television, this week's Lycos 50 features the return of Anna Nicole Smith (#50). The former Playboy Playmate's new Osbournes-style show on E! should keep her on our list for quite a while.

Also hot on the reality television tip: FOX's American Idol (#36). The most popular finalists on Lycos are Justin Guarini, Kelly Clarkson, and Ryan Starr. But all the American Idol finalists put together don't get as many searches as BB3's Paoni.

PLUNGE I: Interest in last week's #1, TV-movie subject Bill Porter, sure didn't last long. Searches for the Oregon salesman plummeted more than 98 percent, dropping him from the top of the Lycos 50 to the same level as Homer Simpson and Saskatchewan.

PLUNGE II: The wild ride of the stock market (#4) makes its presence felt this week on the Lycos 50. Normally we don't include searches for stock prices, because we consider them "generic" queries (our FAQ has more information on this). But this week's dramatic price adjustments had stock searches up more than four times normal. We counted all the searches above and beyond the usual amount to get the total used on the Lycos 50 ranking, similar to the method used when the stock market dropped back in September.

SELF-PROMO: It doesn't make the Lycos 50, but we get lots of searches for the FOXSports.com online game Hit the Pros, which lets you simulate a turn in the batter's box against baseball's best pitchers. You can check the game out here.

THE POST: Several readers have noted that perhaps the reason that the U.S. Postal Service is still getting searches, weeks after postal rates went up, is that they sponsor the team of champion Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France (#7).

SHORT SUBJECTS: The state of Maryland is still being bothered by those piscine pests known as snakehead fish (#26), so the topic of our July 18 article finally makes the Lycos 50... Austin Powers (#34) makes America horny yet again... Vin Diesel is close to the Lycos 50, hinting at a strong opening for xXx... Marijuana (#35) searches don't normally stay this strong during school's summer vacation... Interest in the Atkins Diet (#19) is getting even stronger, and a Newsweek article this week contradicts the New York Times article two weeks ago that claimed that Atkins is right about fat vs. carbs.

NEW THIS WEEK: Stock market, snakehead fish, Austin Powers, American Idol, Neopets, file-swapper WinMX, Barbie, FAFSA, Martha Stewart, Anna Nicole Smith.

DROPOUTS: Ashanti, Audiogalaxy, Sailor Moon, Dave Matthews Band, golf clubs, skateboarding, Carmen Electra, World Trade Center, Shane West, Daniel Pearl, Bill Porter.

ONE YEAR AGO: For the first time in the history of the Lycos 50, Napster (#14) was not the #1 file-swapping program on Lycos, passed by Morpheus (#13). One year later, KaZaA (#3) is the top file-swapper, while Morpheus is second and Napster is fourth.