Big Brother is the most popular prime-time television program of 2000, according to searches by Lycos users.
The popularity of the 24-hour online feeds from the "Big Brother House" makes the show more popular on the web than its reality counterpart Survivor. In fact, Survivor finishes behind two popular animated sitcoms, The Simpsons and South Park.
For our first year-end look at the web's top TV shows, we've created two 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 Pokemon.
THE TOP 12 PRIME-TIME TV SHOWS:
1. Big Brother
2. The Simpsons
3. South Park
4. Survivor
5. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
6. Buffy the Vamipre Slayer
7. The X-Files
8. Dawson's Creek
9. Friends
10. Charmed
11. ER
12. The Sopranos
THE TOP 12 OTHER TV SHOWS:
1. Dragonball
2. Pokemon
3. Gundam Wing
4. Sailor Moon
5. Digimon
6. Days of Our Lives
7. Tenchi Muyo
8. Scooby-Doo
9. Rugrats
10. Powerpuff Girls
11. Baywatch
12. Teletubbies
SOFT SOAP: Days of Our Lives is more than three times as popular as the next biggest soap opera, General Hospital.
PRIME TIME: You may notice that most prime-time shows are not as popular online as they are in ratings. To get a lot of searches, it helps to have a mystical element (like The X-Files), young people (like Dawson's Creek), or both (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: The reality shows, Big Brother and Survivor.
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: Don't call it a comeback, but the animated sitcom Family Guy (#14 Prime-Time) is amazingly popular online considering that FOX keeps canceling it, un-canceling it, and moving it from time slot to time slot.
HOT IN 1999, NOT SO HOT IN 2000: Felicity, Party of Five.
STRANGELY ABSENT: Despite all the Emmys and a place in the ratings top ten, The West Wing finishes far down the list, with fewer searches than former president Woodrow Wilson.
ONES TO WATCH 2001: Expect more reality shows to rule the roost, particularly Survivor II and the randy FOX twosome of Temptation Island, which sticks four couples on an island with 16 singles to see if someone has sex, and Love Cruise, which sticks 16 singles on a boat and rotates who sleeps in who's cabin to see if someone has sex.
Not that the Lycos 50 normally makes political comments, but don't you wonder how FOX NEWS commentators like Bill Kristol, Newt Gingrich, and William Bennett rationalize appearing on the network of Temptation Island, Love Cruise, and Who Wants To Marry a Millionaire?
Tomorrow we're on to The Web's Top Movies of 2000. Join us, won't you?
Note: These rankings reflect all terms entered into the Lycos search engine by users between January 1 and November 30, 2000. All spellings and search variations are included in these totals: for instance, searches for CBS Survivor and Survivor winner are counted as searches for Survivor. For more details about how we create these lists, please see our Lycos 50 FAQ.
