David Cook: solid gold

Reigning champion David Cook passed the 500,000 mark on this week's Billboard album sales chart.  Cook held the No. 10 slot for the second week in a row, putting the sales total on his post-show debut at 582,000.

A couple random stats on Cook's achievement and where this places him in the Idol firmament:

-- According to Yahoo's Charts blog, "This is the longest run in the top 10 for a debut album by an "American Idol" winner since Carrie Underwood's "Some Hearts" logged 25 weeks in the top 10 in 2005-2006... This also matches Jennifer Hudson's four-week run in the top 10 as the best recent showing by a debut album by an Idol contestant."

-- By my count, this makes Cook's album the all-time 15th best selling Idol alum album. (Nine Idol alum albums have gone platinum.)

-- Cook's victory single "Time of My Life" has now spent more than 10 weeks on the Billboard adult contemporary charts. According to Americanidol.com, this makes "him one of 15 solo male artists to do so for 10 weeks or more since the chart began in 1961."

And let us not forget the most important statistic of all, David's birthday. This Saturday, DC turns 26. A very happy birthday to our champion!

-- Richard Rushfield

Photo: Fox

'American Idol' Daily: Digits on the Davids

For David Cook, David Archuleta and every citizen of "American Idol" Nation, the moment of truth is at hand. A superstar (or two, or three) we were promised and now we learn whether a superstar (or two, or three) we have got. The show has ended, the tour has folded up its tent, the tracks recorded, the album shifts and we wait to hear from the marketplace whether it was all for naught.

And today the first album sales numbers for the first David out of the box (Archuleta) were released and for the Chosen One, the fulfillment of Idol prophecies of a 'tween hero molded from the cradle in the show's image, the record-buying public finally had their chance to speak and the results were ... very respectable. 

David Archuleta debuted on the Billboard Top 200 in the No. 2 position, selling 183,000 copies, putting him second only to country/pop phenom Taylor Swift. Over at the always comprehensive and authoritative Idol destination MJ's Big Blog, they have rounded up an impressive array of statistics on where the Chosen One's debut places him in Idol launch history. According to their stats, 183,000 places Archuleta third in the first week sales of second place finishers (behind Clay Aiken and Bo Bice) and 10th in all debut weeks (a category led by Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard and Carrie Underwood, his figures just edging Jordin Sparks out of the top 10.

MJ also points out that Archuleta's numbers are at least 25% more impressive than they seem at first glance, given that album sales are off 24% this year from the same week last year. Archuleta's single "Crush" is also just 10,000 downloads shy of making platinum on the digital charts.

When next week's numbers are released, expect a giant pile-up between David Cook, Swift, Nickleback and Beyonce, all fighting for the top slot. Tonight the Idol champion sits at the No. 2 slot on iTunes top albums listings, just below Nickleback.

And the rest of the busy day in American Idol after the jump.

American Idol Daily: King Cook

The first day of "Idol" champion David Cook's post-show career began with a very positive sign: His album debuted in the top position on the iTunes top albums chart � sweeping aside not just his Season 7 opponent David Archuleta but also the formidable marketplace powers of Taylor Swift, the "Twilight" soundtrack, Beyonce, Britney and Nickelback.   Idol Nation anxiously awaits the arrival of hard numbers on both Davids' sales with upcoming charts, but in the meantime this bodes well for a singer who less than a year ago, in the opening days of the top 24, was given less a chance of winning than the guy who worked the backstage coat room. He was the singer whom judge Cowell dismissed out of hand, saying he had zero charisma.

But coming out of nowhere during Season 7, Cook owned the Idoldome as no one has since Season 4's Carrie Underwood.  Often called the smartest of contestants, Cook showed the rare ability to learn as he went along, to shape himself for the competition and to consistently turn in the show-stopping, history-making performances that bond "Idol" audiences with their performers forever, building a fan base that stretched from a hard-core cougar following to a tween movement that at times rivaled that of the Chosen One himself, David Archuleta.  And now, he belongs to the world.

Best of luck to the boy from Tulsa.  The rest of the day's "Idol" news is after the jump.