Country crooner’s Clear As Day tops the Billboard charts, but how does he size up against other ‘Idol’ champs? By James Montgomery Scotty McCreery Photo: Getty Images December 14, 2003. That was the date Ruben Studdard ‘s Soulful opened at #1 on the Billboard albums chart. And somewhat incredibly, it’s also the last time a debut disc from an “American Idol” champion accomplished the feat. Sure, there have been some near-misses along the way, but since Studdard, none have been able to bow at #1, a streak that spanned some 2,859 days (or 4,116,960 minutes, in case you were counting). It’s also a streak that officially came to an end on Wednesday (October 12), with the rather eye-opening #1 debut by “Idol” season 10 champion Scotty McCreery, whose Clear As Day sold nearly 197,000 copies to take the top spot. It’s the highest first-week number for an “American Idol” winner since David Cook sold almost 280,000 copies of his self-titled debut in 2008 and, given the recent lack of chart success from “Idol” champs, it’s an even more impressive feat. Because, while some “Idol” also-rans (Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert, etc) have managed to move units, the contemporary crop of champions have suffered poor first-week sales. Thanks to the support of the country music crowd, McCreery has managed to buck that trend. But where, exactly, do Clear As Day ‘s first-week numbers rank among the debuts by other “American Idol” winners? We’ve crunched the figures, along with the chart positions, below:
