Anyone within 50 feet of an office watercooler won't be surprised by this news: the CBS show Survivor was a very hot topic last week. So hot, in fact, that the show has toppled Britney Spears to become the new #1 on the Lycos 50.
Wednesday's final episode, in which the much-loathed Richard Hatch claimed the million dollar prize, drew a bundle of Thursday-morning searches. (The network will be glad to hear that 5% of all Survivor searches included the initials CBS. That's a rarity for TV show searches.)
Richard was also the most-searched of the Survivor final four contestants, followed by Kelly, Rudy and Susan. That's the same order in which they finished the competition. But -- surprise! -- Richard was not last week's most-searched contestant. That honor goes to the long-since-ousted Colleen Haskell, who apparently was considered a tad more babelicious than the boogie-impaired Richard.
Other key points from this week's Lycos 50:
HURRICANE ALERT: Hurricane Debby hit #13 this week despite being rather a weak excuse for a hurricane by the time she hit land. It just goes to show how quickly people turn to the Internet when news might affect them personally. Hurricane Floyd was one of the few topics to replace Pokemon at #1during 1999, after all. Another example of personal interest at work: the Firestone Tire recall at #5 in its third week on the list.
Meanwhile the tragic end of the Submarine Kursk continued to grab the public interest. The topic ranked #12, just above Debby.
800-POUND CINEMATIC GORILLA: The X-Men are ranked on the Lycos 50 for the 18th straight week, and still at a very respectable #35. They're making mincemeat of other summer movie hits, most of which never made our list or (like Coyote Ugly) lasted only a week or two. This week's hit flick, Bring It On, managed only 1/3 as many searches as The X-Men. In terms of popularity The X-Men has clearly become this year's Blair Witch Project.
ANNE & ELLEN'S WILD RIDE: Anne Heche and Ellen Degeneres are ranked together at #36 this week -- ironic, since their sudden popularity is due to their much-discussed breakup. Then Heche suddenly showed up drunk or crazy in Fresno, leading to even more online curiosity.
Still, the two couldn't outrank The X-Men or even a mundane topic like the Verizon strike (#34). What's happened to gossip-mongering in this country when a lesbian movie star breakup can't outdraw a labor dispute?
METALLICA DIVES: Last week South Park dropped out after a year on the Lycos 50. This week the rock group Metallica disappears after 40 straight weeks on the list. The last few months Metallica's numbers have been boosted by their dispute with Napster (#10), but that seems to be fading from the public mind. (South Park does return at #46 this week.)
NEW THIS WEEK: Hurricane Debby, Anne & Ellen, anime series Tenchi Muyo and Chrono Cross, and the return of Lycos 50 regulars South Park and Star Wars.
DROPOUTS: Metallica, Jennifer Anniston, Howard Stern, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, Elvis Presley.
BIGGEST RISE: Cindy Margolis, up 9 to #28.
BIGGEST DROP: The IRS, down 19 to #43.
AND FINALLY: Memo to George W. Bush: you might want to try kissing your wife in public more. Since Al and Tipper Gore threw a major lip-lock during his convention acceptance speech, requests for Al Gore kiss have accounted for nearly 4% of all searches for candidate Gore.
And while searches for both major parties dropped sharply this week, Gore increased his search lead over Bush to 20%.
