'American Idol' winners first-week sales: How does Kris Allen compare?

By Andrea Reiher

November 25, 2009 2:24 PM

How does Kris Allen's eponymous debut album stack up against the first-week sales of past "American Idol" winners?

Not very well, we're afraid. Kris Allen ranks dead last out of the eight "American Idol" winners for first-week album sales, having racked up only 80,000 copies sold. The entire list is as follows:

1. Ruben Studdard, "Souful," 400,000+
2. Carrie Underwood, "Some Hearts," 315,000
3. Taylor Hicks, "Taylor Hicks," 298,000
4. Kelly Clarkson, Thankful, 297,000
5. David Cook, David Cook, 279,000
6. Fantasia Barrino, Free Yourself, 240,000
7. Jordin Sparks, Jordin Sparks, 119,000
8. Kris Allen, "Kris Allen," 85,000

In fact, if you factor in the debut albums of the runners-up, Allen still finishes 14th out of 16. The only finalists to have worse debut album sales in the first week are Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo. Yikes.

Here's the good news: first week album sales are not the end-all, be-all. Guess who holds 1-2 spots on the list? Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard. And what are they up to now? Still, with Adam Lambert already on his way to a debut of 225,000 copies BEFORE the American Music Awards incident... Kris Allen is not in good shape.

Follow Zap2it on Twitter for all your movies, TV and celebrity news

Related
'American Idol' runners-up first-week sales: How does Adam Lambert compare?
Kris Allen on 'Ellen'
Kris Allen's debut album

Photo credit: Jive Records

E-mail

in American Idol, FOX, Music (Entertainment), TV (Entertainment), TV News

Permalink

| Comments (8)

8 Comments

that stinks i like his new song but i dont buy albums.

linda | November 25, 2009 4:35 PM

I really think that AI execs promote whomever they want, exactly as they wish. When Studdard won, all you could see was Clay Aiken all over the place. Same for Kris Allen and Adam Lambert.

idol fan | November 25, 2009 8:17 PM

i think this is just the first week that kris release his new single album.i believe after one more week ,kris album sales will become 200,000 and above.god bless you,kris...

katy | November 26, 2009 4:33 AM

Not really that surprising. I did like Kris on AI, but he was the weakest winner they've had yet. His quiet, "aw shucks" demeanor doesn't really lend itself to marketing campaigns and popularity...

wel | November 26, 2009 7:54 AM

No surprised since the real winner should have been Adam Lambert anyway. Even the song Boundaries was written for him in anticipation of him being declared the winner! If not for prejudices from the audience who should have voted for talent and voice, Adam would have won hands down!

susie | November 29, 2009 11:18 PM

No Susie. If Adam Lambert has won AI, it would be a huge PR disaster. I'm not sure how you can consider someone who likes to put up porn shows and screams like cats in heat to be a talent. Kris has more REAL talent in his little finger than that porn star could ever hope for. Btw, No Boundaries is written for Danny Gokey by Kara (you can see the shock on her face when he was booted). However, Kris did an extremely good job out of that crappy song and believe it or not, that is still his #1 selling single. I hope that his debut single, Live Like We Are Dying, would outsell that cos that's a potential radio hit.

Shirley | December 4, 2009 1:40 AM

I agree that Kris' debut album sales are very disappointing however, it got no promotion & the media & TBTB treated Adam Lambert as the winner. It is unfair to compare Kris's sales with all the past winners because the market is so different today, but they aren't great. Jordin Sparks also had disappointing sales however, she's doing just fine. Kris is getting radio play while Lambert is not. After the Glamberts have exhausted all their money buying multiple copies of Lambert's CDs, we'll see how he fares. Lambert's debuted at #3 but quickly fell off top 20 in Neilson SoundScan. So, in retrospect, his sales, considering, it was the "most anticipated album in 2009" isn't impressive at all. Within a short period of time the label released 3 singles of FYE just hoping something will "stick."

If Lambert won A.I., it would have been a huge PR disaster. The American public likes their winners to be the typical boy/girl next door type & he's not that. We soon were shown what he really is, someone who likes to shock & put on porn shows. His screaming makes you want to stick pencils in your ears. On tour, I doubt colleges or State Fairs will find him a suitable entertainer.

Vicky | December 28, 2009 9:52 AM

Kris is such a loser. Adam should have won.

Adam lover | January 13, 2010 9:02 PM