With a second version even more popular than the first, American Idol ranks as the most popular prime-time television program of 2003, according to searches by Lycos users.

American Idol received more searches over the second half of 2002 than the TV show that topped our list last year, Survivor, so it is no surprise that it ascends to the top spot this year. Survivor falls to #4, behind perennial favorite The Simpsons (#3) as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#2), which broadcast its final episodes earlier this year.

Once again we've created two Web's Most Wanted lists: one for prime-time shows, and the other for "other" programs. This "other" list is dominated by Japanese anime shows, starting with the ubiquitous Dragonball and Yu-Gi-Oh!. In fact, only one non-animated show makes this second list, the MTV stunt extravaganza Jackass.

Here are the Top 12 prime-time shows, with last year's rank in parentheses:

1. American Idol (7)
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2)
3. The Simpsons (3)
4. Survivor (1)
5. Charmed (8)
6. Joe Millionaire (-)
7. Big Brother (4)
8. The Bachelor (9)
9. Friends (5)
10. Smallville (12)
11. South Park (6)
12. The Bachelorette (-)

Here are the Top 12 other shows, with last year's rank in parentheses:

1. Dragonball (1)
2. Yu-Gi-Oh! (2)
3. Pokemon (3)
4. Inuyasha (-)
5. Spongebob Squarepants (5)
6. Sailor Moon (4)
7. Gundam (6)
8. Rurouni Kenshin (-)
9. Beyblade (-)
10. Jackass (10)
11. Digimon (8)
12. Scooby-Doo (9)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, CARTOON DEPT.: The latest twist on the reality dating formula, Joe Millionaire, was a national sensation, spending eight weeks on the Lycos 50 in January and February. The autumn sequel, Joe Millionaire 2, was a massive flop both in ratings and searches.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, ANIMATED CARTOON DEPT.: Inuyasha is yet another fantasy-based Japanese cartoon, but it differs from many of the other popular anime programs on the Lycos 50 because it aims at a more mature audience and airs during Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block of programming, not with the kid-oriented anime shows like Pokemon and Dragonball.

TV INTERNATIONAL: A couple of popular shows nearly made this list despite never airing inside the United States. Star Academie is the French version of American Idol; many of the searches for this show came from Canada. Meteor Garden is a live-action drama starring the members of a Taiwanese boy band called F4. It also got a lot of searches from Canada, but we're not sure why. The show doesn't seem to be on the air there.

FUN FACT: Last year, the show that didn't receive many searches despite a lot of media coverage was The Osbournes; this year it was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

HOT IN 2002, NOT SO HOT IN 2003: Kids' cartoon Zoids, alien teenager drama Roswell.

ONE TO WATCH 2004: Teen soap The O.C. has been hot since it premiered on FOX this summer and will only get bigger next year.

TOMORROW: Top movies of 2003.