Jordin Sparks' self-titled debut album has debuted at No. 10 on this week's The Billboard 200 album sales chart after selling only 119,000 copies during its initial week of release, according to Nielsen Soundscan data for the week ending November 25.
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Last year, "Taylor Hicks," fifth-season American Idol champion Taylor Hicks' own self-titled debut album, premiered at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and sold 298,000 copies during its first week of release in mid-December. In 2005, "Some Hearts," fourth-season American Idol champion Carrie Underwood's debut album, premiered at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and sold 315,000 copies during its first week of release on the week before Thanksgiving.
Additionally, unlike Hicks (Young Jeezy's "The Inspiration") and Underwood's (Madonna's "Confessions") debuts, none of the nine albums that ranked ahead of "Jordin Sparks" on The Billboard 200 were in their initial week of release.
Josh Groban's holiday set "Noel" climbed to the No. 1 spot on the album sales chart by selling 405,000 copies during its eighth week of release, while Alicia Keys' "As I Am" -- fresh off a monster debut week in which it sold 742,000 copies -- dropped to No. 2. "Now That's What I Call Music's" 26th compilation album placed third on the week's Billboard 200 chart, followed by Garth Brooks' "The Ultimate Hits" at No. 4 and the Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" at No. 5.
The soundtrack to Disney's High School Musical 2 moved from No. 14 to No. 6 -- and in doing so, it surpassed "Daughtry," the debut album of the band fronted by former Idol 5 finalist Chris Daughtry, as the top selling album of 2007.
Underwood's recently-released "Carnival Ride" sophmore album climbed two spots to No. 7, followed by Celine Dion's "Taking Chances" at No. 8 and Chris Brown's "Exclusive" at No. 9. Sparks' debut managed to rank as the week's top debut by outselling the No. 11 album -- Keith Urban's "Greatest Hits" collection -- by 2,000 copies.
While "Black Friday" and the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend helped ensure that "Jordin Sparks" and the rest of the week's Top 11 albums all sold at least 100,000 copies individually, the week's total sales (13.94 million units) were still down 18.1% from the same week last year (17.02 million), according to Billboard. Compared to the prior week, overall album sales were up 19% during the holiday week, according to Billboard.
"Jordin Sparks'" 119,000 sales figure "shattered" the poorest-performing first-week sales record of the Idol winner debut album that previously held the dubious honor. "Free Yourself," the 2004 debut album of American Idol third-season winner Fantasia Barrino, debuted at No. 8 on The Billboard 200 and sold 240,000 first-week copies when it was released in the same Thanksgiving week sales period that Sparks' album hit stores this year.
"A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream)," the debut album of sixth-season American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis, is scheduled for release on December 4.
