Post-holiday shoppers snapped up Idol albums last week, leading to a nice bounce up the charts for the majority of our Idols. Read on for more.

It was a good week for most of the current Idol albums, with post-holiday shoppers using their gift cards to pick up copies. David Cook’s debut sold another 101,000 copies for a total to date of 812,000. This moves the CD back into the Billboard 200 top ten at #10. The album has been certified platinum (units shipped) and David was given a plaque live on Fox’s New Year’s Eve show. The album moves up two spots to #3 on Top Rock Albums and is #15 on Top Internet Albums.

In its seventh week, David Archuleta’s debut slips from #22 to #33 on the Billboard 200.

Carrie Underwood’s Carnival Ride holds at #54 on the Billboard 200 and moves up one spot to #9 on Top Country Albums. Kellie Pickler’s had a nice jump on the Billboard 200, moving up from #140 to #129. It is also up on Top Country Albums, moving from #27 to #25.

Speaking of country albums, Kristy Lee Cook’s Why Wait made a surprise reappearance on Top Country Albums this week, reentering the chart at #75.

Jennifer Hudson had a great week, moving up to #70 from #85 on the Billboard 200. The album holds at #21 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. Daughtry is also up this week, moving from #105 to #97 on the Billboard 200. The album is #23 on Top Rock Albums, #18 on Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums, and #16 on Top Hard Rock Albums.

Elliott Yamin’s My Kind of Holiday charts at #74 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop.

Check out Ken Barnes’ ‘Idol Chatter’ for sales figures and more. Note that this is the last week for his great column as he is “moving on.”

Idol Singles on the Charts

Although this will probably be the last week that Idol holiday tunes will see a lot of chart action, there were two new entries this week. Carrie Underwood’s “The First Noel” entered Hot Country Songs at #50. Her rendition of “What Child is This” enters the same chart at #51. Carrie’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is #16 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and #23 on Hot Country Songs. Carrie’s duet with Elvis Presley, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” is #55 on Hot Country Songs.

Kimberley Locke’s “We Need a Little Christmas” is #21 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

David Archuleta’s second single, “A Little Too Not Over You,” enters the Pop100 at #93 and the Pop 100 Airplay chart at #73. It is also noteworthy that his first single, “Crush ” had a nice resurgence, moving up from #45 to #27 on the Hot 100.

David Cook’s “The Time Of My Life” hit #1 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks this week.

Here’s a summary of all of the Idol-related singles:

• “Light On” (David Cook): Hot 100 (40), Hot 100 Airplay (52), Pop 100 (31), Pop 100 Airplay (30), Mainstream Top 40 (22), Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks (11), Hot Digital Tracks (41), Hot Digital Songs (42)
• “The Time Of My Life” (David Cook): Hot Adult Contemporary (1)
• “Crush” (David Archuleta): Hot 100 (27), Pop 100 (28), Pop 100 Airplay (41), Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (9), Mainstream Top 40 (36), Hot Adult Top 40 (17), Hot Digital Tracks (21), Hot Digital Songs (22)
• “A Little Too Not Over You” (David Archuleta): Pop 100 (93), Pop 100 Airplay (73)
• “Spotlight” (Jennifer Hudson): Pop 100 (81), Pop 100 Airplay (61), Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (17), Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (17), Hot Adult R&B Airplay (5)
• “If This Isn’t Love” (Jennifer Hudson): Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (51), Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (51), Hot Adult R&B Airplay (31)
• “What About Now” (Daughtry): Hot Adult Contemporary (10), Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks (7)
• “Feels Like Tonight” (Daughtry): Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (7)
• “Best Days Of Your Life” (Kellie Pickler): Hot Country Songs (53)
• “Lose My Soul” (TobyMac featuring Mandisa): Hot Christian Adult Contemporary (3), Hot Christian Songs (4)

New Idol Music

Season 4’s Nikko Smith is releasing his first full-length CD, Revolution, on Amazon, among other places (just click on the link). Nikko tells the St. Louis Tribune that it’s been a long time coming and that he hit some “bumps” in the road along the way. Nikko’s frustration has been that he’s an R&B singer completing with rappers and hip-hop artists for market share.

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