Year in and year out, the best — and worst — celebrities and public figures dominate the headlines. Who made major news this crazy 2016 election-cycle year?
As you gear up for 2017, check out one of our Top 10 Most Googled lists, and just why the rabidly-followed folks were in the news so hard this year.
10. Kevin Durant
This Golden State Warriors basketball star is a megawatt star all over the place. This year, the Lifetime network produced a film about his mom and titled it The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story, after Durant credited her for his success during his acceptance speech for the 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player.
9. Usain Bolt
Olympian sprinter Usain Bolt became the first athlete to win the 100-meter event three times at the 2016 Olympic Games. This year, a documentary titled I Am Bolt was produced, chronicling his early days in Jamaica and his rise to super-athlete stardom.
8. Cam Newton
Cam Newton, NFL QB for NFC South’s Carolina Panthers was rated #1 player this year, but mostly, people wanted to talk about his off-the-chain eye for fashion.
7. Simon Biles
Besides being the object of Zac Efron’s affection during the Rio Olympics, USA’s Simone Biles brought home four medals to her home country. That’s Google-worthy to be sure.
6. Ryan Lochte
Besides being insanely creepy, Ryan Lochte — US Olympic swimmer — was most Googled this year because he’s a big, fat liar. During the Rio Olympics, Lochte made false claims that he was robbed. He wasn’t, and he ended up looking like a bigger douche than normal, and also, no swimming for Lochte till 2017.
5. Steven Avery
Steven Avery was the subject of Netflix documentary Making a Murderer. Avery was convicted of killing Teresa Halbach in 2007 after being exonerated for a rape he served nearly two decades for. The production claimed that there was a possiblity that the local sheriff’s department framed Avery over the killing of Halbach, though they deny it.